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SEEING    DARKLE 


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BY 
J.SPARHAW 


BX  9178  .J6  S4 

Jones,  John  Sparhawk,  1841| 

1910. 
Seeing  darkly 


SEEING   DARKLY 


.1.    Si'AiniAWK    .loNKS,    1).  D. 


y 

Ebe  prcebijterian  pulptt 

-•* 


Seeing  Darkly 


BY  THE^/ 

REV.  J.  SPARHAWK  JONES,  D.  D. 


PHILADELPHIA 

PRESBYTERIAN   BOARD   OF   PUBLICATION 
AND  SABBATH-SCHOOL  WORK 

1904 


Copyright,  1904,  by  the  Trustees  of 
The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath-School  Work. 

Published  May,  iqo4. 


.i 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  Seeing  Darkly 3 

II.  Rahab 27 

III.  The   Unprofitable  Servant 51 

IV.  A  New  Year  Sermon T'j 

V.  Paul  Aboard 99 

VI.     The  Value  of  the  Soul 121 

VII.     A  Thanksgiving  Sermon 145 

VIII.     The  Coming  Temple 167 


I 

SEEING   DARKLY 


SEEING    DARKLY 
I 

SEEING  DARKLY 
"  For  now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly." — i  Cor.  xiii :  12. 

By  way  of  illustration,  a  parallel  is  here  run 
between  childhood  and  manhood,  putting  the  one 
in  apposition  to  our  natural  life  in  this  world  and 
the  other  to  typify  a  higher  life,  a  life  to  come. 
This  is  an  apt  figure.  Manhood  is  the  period 
of  the  broadest  development  of  our  powers,  and 
hence  fitly  stands  for  the  immortal  vigor  and 
luxuriant  pulse  of  a  future  and  ideal  state  of 
being;  whereas  childhood  is  a  preparatory,  un- 
practised, unripe  stage  of  the  human  creature, 
during  which  he  is  only  getting  ready  to  live, 
storing  up  materials  for  use  in  succeeding  years. 

For  it  has  pleased  his  Maker  to  lead  man — 
who  is  yet  the  master-piece  of  creative  skill,  upon 
the  stage  of  action  in  an  unpromising  plight — a 
child.  He  begins  with  unconsciousness  and  help- 
lessness and  comes  slowly  to  moral  sentiments 

3 


4  SEEING  DARKLY 

and  intelligence.  He  begins  with  instinct  and 
ignorance,  and  learns  little  by  little  the  rudiments 
of  knowledge  and  how  to  carry  himself  in  the 
world.  The  astronomer  who  predicts  eclipses 
and  transits  of  Venus  and  lays  off  infinity  had 
once  to  learn  that  two  and  two  make  four.  Only 
by  this  road  could  he  reach  the  higher  calculus. 
The  surgeon  who  dissects  the  fibers  and  demon- 
strates the  human  anatomy  once  spelt  out  with 
incredible  difficulty  the  little  monosyllable  "  man." 
We  begin  with  balls,  whips,  tops,  and  end  with 
systems,  creeds,  philosophies,  and  theologies. 
And  Paul  here  hints  that  even  these  are  only 
bigger  balls  and  more  ambitious  kites.  At  any 
rate,  his  reference  is  evidently  to  the  notorious 
order  of  development  among  our  faculties. 
"  When  I  was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child,  .  .  . 
when  I  became  a  man,  I  put  away  childish 
things."  In  other  words,  the  subjects  which 
interest  a  child  and  the  mental  processes  of  child- 
hood are  different  from  those  of  adult  age.  At 
the  earlier  period  mind  is  just  dawning,  learning 
to  think,  organize,  compare,  and  has  not  attained 
to  abstract  ideas  and  finalities. 
y\  Now,    according    to    this    fine    analogy,    man, 

y  living  under  the  present  order  of  things,  is  in  his 

minority,  will  not  become  an  adult,  of  age,  and 


SEEING  DARKLY  5 

be  graduated  until  he  has  entered  a  higher  state 
of  being.  Paul  means  to  say  that  the  questions 
which  now  occupy  attention,  the  cares  which  vex 
and  harass,  the  whole  web  of  mortal  life  is,  rela- 
tively, a  childish  affair,  like  the  rattles  and  straws, 
the  Noah's  ark  and  mimic  soldiers,  which  one 
discards  when  he  buckles  on  the  harness  of  life. 
Our  pragmatical,  pompous  little  world — according 
to  this  apostolic  figure — is  a  wide  nursery  of  in- 
fants in  swaddling  bands,  learning  to  balance 
themselves,  to  carry  themselves,  to  express  them- 
selves in  the  simplest  syllables.  The  human  spirit 
is  cased  and  confined,  at  present,  within  narrow 
limits,  can  receive  only  oblique  and  straggling 
glimpses  of  higher  certitudes.  Man  cannot  look 
with  open  face  and  steady  vision  upon  those 
full-orbed  suns,  but  only  sees  them  obscured  and 
overcast :  hence  the  inadequacy  and  unsatisfac- 
toriness  of  current  religious  knowledge.  That 
unseen  firmament  where  God  dwells  and  works 
and  divine  tendencies  rise  and  fall  like  the  tides  is 
not  directly  accessible.  We  are  apprised  of  it  in- 
directly ;  now  we  see  in  a  mirror  darkly,  imper- 
fectly, obscurely. 
i>s  We  read  that  the  ancients,  before  the  mechanic 
arts  were  advanced  and  perfected,  used  in  their 
windows  thin  plates  of  horn  or  isinglass  or  some 


6  SEEING  DARKLY 

translucent  material,  through  which  objects  could 
be  recognized  in  a  general,  indefinite  way.  Their 
mirrors  also  were  metallic  and  gave  a  blurred  and 
vague  outline,  reveahng  the  face,  form,  figure,  but 
nothing  clean  and  clear.  And  this  is  the  homely 
analogue  by  which.  Paul,  comparing  great  things 
with  small,  sets  forth  our  mortal  apprehension  of 
God  and  the  sphere  of  angel  and  archangel  and 
the  whole  spiritual  economy.  lie  says  that  living 
in  this  envelope  of  flesh,  in  this  opaque  and  frosty 
air,  beset  by  infirmities,  perplexities,  doubts,  men 
do  not  get  more  than  a  fugitive,  occasional 
glimpse  of  the  great  worlds  of  nature  and  grace, 
the  wide  kingdom  of  eternity  with  its  tremendous 
machinery,  its  mighty  invisible  forces  and  laws, 
its  thrones  and  principalities  and  orders  of  nobility, 
its  priests  and  paladins,  and  kings  and  elders,  and 
all  its  processions  and  histories — these  eternal 
reals  we  sense  very  imperfectly,  do  not  see  them 
in  their  naked  realism,  by  reason  of  our  feeble 
grasp,  our  fleshliness  and  sensuous  crude  organi- 
zation. We  look  at  the  things  of  God  and  at  the 
ultimate  ground  of  being — through  a  dim  mirror, 
and  do  not  see  the  supernatural  distinctly. 

Confessedly  this  is  an  apt  description  of  our 
case  and  of  the  posture  of  the  human  mind,  in 
relation  to  the  highest  topics  of  thought.     It  is 


SEEING  DARKLY 


certainly  true  that  moral  and  religious  ideas  are 
part  of  man's  outfit.  We  have  them.  We  ponder 
them.  We  turn  them  over  in  reflection.  Once 
in  a  while  they  flood  the  soul  and  ride  high  on 
the  shore  and  submerge  the  low  flats  of  our 
ordinary  life  and  make  the  world  look  mean  in 
the  presence  of  their  majesty.  It  is  a  stupendous 
truth  that  man  can  think  about  God  and  eternity, 
about  the  endlessness  of  knowledge  and  the 
beauty  of  holiness  and  the  sovereignty  of  love  and 
the  ceaseless  progression  of  the  soul  in  all  the 
higher  elements  of  personahty.  Thinking  upon 
these,  one  does  not  feel  that  he  deals  in  fairy 
tales,  in  Arabian  stories  of  enchanted  palaces  and 
impossible  combinations :  there  is  no  sense  of 
contradiction,  grotesqueness,  or  absurdity  cleaving 
to  these  supernal  ideas.  There  may  be  a  vein  of 
superstition  running  through  human  nature,  but 
if  so,  it  is  a  reflection  of  something  deeper,  of  a 
strong  and  silent  undertow  that  sets  out  toward 
unseen  kingdoms  of  miracle  and  wonder.  All 
questions  ultimately  become  religious  questions, 
if  carried  to  their  logical  limits. 

So,  this  rhetorical  figure  of  Paul's  is  highly 
descriptive  and  forcible.  This  present,  he  argues, 
is  the  alphabet  of  universal  knowledge,  the  child- 
hood of  immortality,  the  lowest  form,  the  primer. 


8  SEEING  DARKLY 

Man,  busied  with  manifold  work,  elaborating  his 
/  philosophies,  exploring  nature,  building  bridges, 
founding  cities,  trying  his  experiments  and  rearing 
his  civilizations,  using  his  practical  intellect  and 
letting  his  idealizing,  imaginative  intellect  and  his 
aesthetic  reason  fly  abroad  and  mount  the  heavens, 
is  only  beginning  to  try  his  infantile  powers,  and 
all  that  he  ascertains,  discovers,  demonstrates,  is 
only  hint,  flash,  shadow  of  immense,  unutterable, 
enduring  substances,  out  of  sight.  Thus  men 
cannot  give  an  adequate  and  satisfying  definition 
of  God,  His  mode  of  being,  occupations,  enjoy- 
ments ;  so  soon  as  they  attempt  it,  directly  they 
are  plunged  into  contradictions. 

Likewise  in  regard  to  the  spiritual  body — how  it 
is  equipped,  its  actions  and  passions,  its  ascensions 
and  errands  and  immortal  energies;  this,  too,  is 
seen  only  through  a  dim  mirror.  The  everlasfing 
future  also :  who  shall  compass  such  a  thought 
and  fill  it  up  with  histories,  experiences,  vicissi- 
tudes, work  ?  The  bare  idea  of  endless,  conscious 
existence  staggers  us,  strikes  us  dumb,  casts  us 
into  suspense  and  silence ;  it  is  too  vast,  volumi- 
nous a  thought  to  handle  at  our  present  stage. 

We  think  again,  of  angels  and  archangels,  of 
seraphs  and  the  hierarchies  of  moral  intelligence 
that  rise  tier  above  tier  through   the   boundless 


SEEING  DARKLY  9 

dominions  of  God.  M.  Angelo,  Raphael,  Titian, 
have  depicted  them  with  gHstening  wings  and 
with  glorias  circling  their  heads,  but  we  know 
little  or  nothing  of  the  avocations,  uses,  ambitions, 
enjoyments  of  unseen  immortal  creatures.  We 
believe  there  are  such ;  that  there  is  no  finer  clay 
in  the  universe  than  man,  no  higher  organism,  no 
erect,  stalwart,  lofty  being  compared  to  whom 
Plato  would  look  like  an  infant,  and  the  music  of 
Mendelssohn  sound  like  the  preparatory  scrapings 
and  guttural  hubbub  of  a  discordant  rehearsal, 
this  indeed,  is  not  likely. 

Beyond  us  there  surely  are  creatures  more 
powerful,  alert,  sagacious  than  we.  Again,  touch- 
ing the  future  of  the  world  and  the  progress 
of  our  species,  we  see  in  a  mirror  darkly.  That 
there  is  a  far-off  goal  toward  which  mankind 
slowly  moves,  and  that  one  coming  New  Year 
day  there  shall  be  a  clanging  of  bells  and  a  clash- 
ing of  cymbals  and  a  chorus  of  hallelujahs,  pro- 
claiming a  kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth — com- 
pared to  which  all  that  went  before  and  all 
previous  celebrations  shall  be  like  penny  candles 
and  penny  trumpets — toward  such  a  civilization 
and  settlement  all  truly  good  men  and  women 
look  forward.  It  is  the  burden  of  Hebrew 
prophecy,  an  age  of  harvest  and  of  vintage,  that 


lo  SEEING  DARKLY 

shall  gather  up  into  itself  all  the  power  and  glory 
of  preceding  ages,  and  be  their  grand  climacteric 
and  burning  focus  and  fulfillment ;  but  when  and 
how  this  gorgeous  horizon  of  purple  and  gold 
will  unroll  itself,  what  shall  be  the  form  and 
fashion  of  that  time,  its  worship,  creeds,  laws, 
work, — concerning  this,  we  see  darkly. 

Men  preach  and  pray  about  the  millenium — a 
kingdom  of  righteousness  and  love — pillared  and 
domed  and  set  upon  sure  foundations  on  the 
earth ;  but  when  we  come  to  particulars,  the  vision 
recedes,  melts,  dissolves  into  generalities.  We  see 
through  a  glass  obscurely.  This  is  the  fate  that 
cleaves  to  all  human  imaginations  touching  the 
future  and  the  unseen.  We  speculate  upon  the 
vast  possible  addition  which  would  be  made  to 
man's  information  and  capacity  if  instead  of  five 
organic  senses  he  had  six,  seven,  or  ten.  Un- 
questionably a  creature  supplied  with  seven 
senses  would  have  openings  into  the  universe 
which  we  have  not,  and  avenues  of  knowledge 
not  available  by  us. 

Compared  to  such  an  one,  man  mayhap 
would  stand  in  much  the  same  relative  position 
as  a  mole  or  dark  burrowing  animal  stands  to 
him.  Yet  in  relation  to  the  invisible  firmaments 
and  kingdoms  that  arch  over  us,  man  is  like  one 


SEEING  DARKLY  ii 

who  lacks  the  sixth  sense,  the  appropriate  organ, 
the  prehensile  grasp,  or  has  it  only  in  a  rudi- 
mentary, ungrown  form.  There  are  phases  of 
truth  that  only  flicker  on  the  horizon's  brim.  We 
know  enough  of  them  for  practical  purposes  of 
reverence  and  obedience,  but  nothing  at  all  com- 
mensurate with  their  amplitude  and  grandeur. 
Even  the  few  sublime  secrets  that  God  has  di- 
vulged through  the  Bible  and  in  conscience,  none 
of  them  probably  appear  to  us — looking  upon 
them  from  our  shore — as  they  appear  to  higher 
and  more  powerful  intelligences,  and  as  they  shall 
appear  to  man  himself  when  he  has  been  armored 
with  his  sixth  or  seventh  sense  and  stands  amid 
the  stupendous  developments  and  dawning  visions 
of  eternity.  For  then  he  shall  see  upon  many 
sides  that  polygon  which  now  he  sees  only  upon 
one  or  two  of  its  sides. 
r7  Yea,  verily  now  we  see  through  a  mirror  darkly. 
Nevertheless  we  see,  says  Paul.  We  see  some- 
thing, we  have  hold  of  reality  by  the  fringes,  by 
the  hem  and  skirts.  "We  know  in  part,"  but 
"  we  know."  "  We  see  dimly,"  but  "  we  see." 
Those  conceptions  which  have  risen  upon  the 
human  mind  touching  God  and  the  invisible  are 
authentic  and  true.  We  may  build  upon  them, 
we  may  take  them  for  granted.     Those   religious 


12  SEEING  DARKLY 

definitions  and  ideas  that  have  worked  themselves 
clear  from  the  mud  and  silt  of  superstitious  accre- 
tion and  that  commend  themselves  to  the  moral 
instincts  and  sober  reason  of  the  best  part  of 
mankind,  these  may  be  said  to  be  known  for  all 
practical  ends.  "  We  know,"  albeit  in  part.  "  We 
see,"  even  though  it  be  "  darkly."  Unless  earth, 
time,  life,  is  one  stupendous  delusion,  a  swirling 
eddy  of  aimless  atoms,  then  it  is  certain  that  so 
far  as  the  few  great  religious  truths  go,  which 
have  been  revealed  to  man,  they  are  real,  reliable, 
substantial,  worthy  of  all  acceptation.  Respecting 
them,  we  stand  much  where  the  astronomer  does 
in  the  matter  of  the  stars.  He  sets  his  telescope 
for  Jupiter,  Saturn,  Sirius,  and  reports  that  he  has 
found  them;  there  they  are,  he  says,  each  with 
its  atmosphere  and  physical  constitution,  its  day 
and  night,  revolutions,  seasons,  temperature  and 
chemistry.  But  when  I  push  inquiry  and  ask 
him,  Are  they  inhabited  ?  have  they  parliaments 
and  congresses,  Catholics  and  Protestants  ?  do 
they  favor  a  king  or  a  president  ?  have  they  a 
pope  and  politicians  ?  is  there  what  we  call  a 
civilization  on  those  mighty  orbs  ?  do  they  found 
colonies  and  send  out  fleets?  are  there  philan- 
thropies and  humanities  there  ?  do  they  use 
our    logic    and    multiplication    table?      Tell    me 


SEEING  DARKLY 


13 


about  their  customs,  creeds,  social  usages,  the 
astronomer  answers :  I  know  nothing  of  all 
this.  I  do  not  even  know  that  those  flaming 
worlds  that  cross  my  glass  have  any  tenantry  at 
all ;  they  could  not  be  of  our  human  build  and 
make,  in  any  case.  I  "  know  only  in  part,"  I 
"  see  through  a  glass,  darkly "  but  I  see,  I  see 
enough  to  satisfy  me  that  they  are  prodigious  re- 
volving globes  supported  by  that  same  force  of 
gravity  which  holds  our  earth-ball  together  and 
keeps  it  going.  What  I  do  know  about  the  si- 
dereal heavens  is  absolutely  and  mathematically 
certain  for  me. 

So,  similarly,  it  fares  with  those  transcendental 
ideas  and  deep,  mysterious  presentiments  that  stir 
sensibility  in  man  and  excite  wonder  and  hope. 
There  is  a  hemisphere  of  them,  lying  in  shadow, 
in  the  night,  and  another  hemisphere  wheeHng 
.through  the  gray,  misty  dawn  and  hence  visible. 
V  True,  I  cannot  adjust  the  foreknowledge  of  God  a 
with  the  moral  liberty  of  man ;  but  I  see  enough 
to  know  that  there  is  an  adjustment,  a  point  of 
intersection,  an  eventual  harmony.  I  cannot 
comprehend  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  or 
the  Person  of  the  Christ.     I  cannot  conceive  the 


condition  of  disembodied  spirits.     I  know  nothing 
about   heaven   and   hell — these   and   other   high 


/ 


14  SEEING  DARKLY 

themes  immediately  present  antinomies  and  con- 
tradictions in  thought ;  nevertheless  I  see  enough 
to  convince  me  that  there  is  something  there ;  if 
only  the  human  brain  were  big  enough  and  the 
vision  of  mortal  man  keen  enough  to  take  it  all 
in.  As  well  might  a  caterpillar  crawling  leisurely 
over  one  arc  of  a  great  circle  think  of  expound- 
ing that  geometrical  figure  as  I  the  immensity 
of  God  and  His  universe.  The  poor,  dark 
worm  would  have  to  crawl  for  ages,  past  king- 
doms of  fish,  bird,  mammal,  clear  up  to  the 
mathematical  man,  before  it  would  find  out  that 
"  a  circle  is  a  figure  generated  by  the  rotation  of  a 
line,  one  end  of  which  is  stationary."  While 
this  analogy  between  man  and  the  caterpillar  is 
by  no  means  exact,  since  man  has  a  born  faculty 
and  affinity  for  moral  truth  and  religious  ideas, 
there  is  yet  this  much  force  in  it,  that  we  mortal 
men  are  creeping  along  one  single  radius  or  seg- 
ment of  a  circle  that  sweeps  through  all  firma- 
ments— its  center  everywhere,  its  circumference 
nowhere.  Consequently  it  ha{)pens  that  one 
says,  "  I  am  a  Calvinist,"  another,  "  I  am  a  pan- 
theist," another,  "  I  am  a  deist,"  another,  "  I  am 
an  agnostic."  They  stand  at  varying  points  of 
this  huge  circle  flinging  its  radii  into  space.  Some 
'  feee  farther,  some   not   so   far,  some  not  beyond 


t^Cv^i*.l)>M. 


SEEING  DARKLY  15 

their  nose ;  but  none  see  all,  and  all  see  darkly.  j 

The  unity  of  God's  design,  the  glory  of  His  idea,  | 

the    end    of    His    creation,    the    fulfillment    of  -             j 

prophecy,  the  consummation  of  this  experiment  *      ■"      j^ 

of  man  on  the  earth — these  immense  horizons  and  '   ■  '  ^^^??>v^^ 

unutterable   things   we   apprehend,  "we   know"  ri , 

about   them;    but    it    is    a   partial,   fragmentary  .^^''^ -^^^^/^ 

knowledge ;  like  broad,  round,  red  suns  on  glow-  ^ 


ing  axles,  they  wheel  across  our  object-glass — 
"  we  see  "  them,  but  not  on  all  sides,  not  perfectly, 
not  adequately,  not  as  they  are. 

Now,  in  view  of  this  disability,  the  >p.ractical  " 
CQXss^x^ff^ox  every  man  is  to  see  to  it  that  the  mass 
of  his  ignorance  and  doubt  does  not  cast  any 
prejudice  or  injurious  reflection  upon  what  he 
feels  must  be  true,  what  he  is  bound  as  a 
moral,  responsible,  religious  being  to  believe 
and  to  practise.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  ever- 
lasting future  will  impugn  our  fundamental 
beliefs.  The  rim  of  that  vast  wheel  that  re- 
volves out  of  sight  is  surely  rounded  into  perfect 
symmetry  with  that  section  of  it  which  you  see. 
All  real  truths  are  consistent.  If  you  believe  you 
have  hold  of  one  or  more  of  them,  you  can  safely 
steer  by  it;  it  will  not  wreck  you,  it  will  not 
deceive  or  mock  you — in  the  great  Hereafter. 
There  are  finalities,  there  are  views  of  God,  of  sin. 


i6  SEEING  DARKLY 

of  redemption,  of  character,  of  destiny  which 
instead  of  being  swept  away,  doubtless  will  be 
enlarged  and  confirmed  in  the  progress  of  the 
soul. 

I  read  that  there  are  rivers  on  the  globe  that 
are  fickle  and  treacherous  and  apt  suddenly  to 
change  their  channel,  so  that  in  time  of  flood  the 
farmer  may  see  their  mighty  waters  strike  a  new 
pathway  across  his  timber-land  and  cotton-field 
and  swallow  up  his  possessions.  But  there  need 
be  no  fear  that  the  current  of  divine  purpose,  by 
any  sudden  rise  or  turn,  will  wipe  out  and  over- 
whelm those  first  principles  and  fast  landmarks 
which  are  established  in  the  best  and  most  serious 
thinking  of  men  upon  supernatural  things.  We 
see  darkly  and  dimly,  nevertheless  we  see.  Let 
us  hold  firmly  by  what  we  are  sure  of  and  that 
commends  itself  to   our  reason   and  conscience. 

The  Christian  centuries  and  all  the  centuries 
have  been  at  work  digging,  boring,  blasting, 
smelting,  trying  to  separate  the  slag  from  the  ore, 
that  which  ought  to  be  believed  and  done  from 
that  which  is  false,  mischievous  or  useless.  The 
workmen  all  see  in  part  and  prophesy  in  part. 
The  stones  are  quarried  and  dressed  gradually 
and  lie  here  and  there,  and  only  the  Master 
Builder,  in  whose  thought  lives  the  archetype  and 


SEEING  DARKLY  17 

plan  of  a  perfect  universe,  can  put  them  together 
in  symmetry  and  order 

Augustine  works  out  his  scheme  and  Pe- 
lagius  takes  a  divergent  direction ;  Athanasius 
and  Arius  cannot  agree,  nor  can  Luther  and 
Tetzel,  nor  Calvin  and  Socinus.  Each  of  them 
says,  "  This  is  the  truth  for  me ;  this  is  what  the 
make  of  my  mind  constrains  me  to  believe." 
They  all  see  in  part  and  through  a  dim  mirror, 
but  doubtless  some  more  accurately  than  others. 
The  same  is  true  in  regard  to  the  Providential 
leading  of  the  world  and  God's  treatment  of 
man.  This  also  is  a  section  of  human  experience 
that  awaits  the  rising  of  the  curtain  and  needs  to 
be  illuminated. 

Sir  Henry  Bessemer  discovered  a  means  of 
rapidly  converting  iron  into  steel  by  blowing  a 
blast  of  air  through  the  iron  when  in  a  state  of 
fusion,  by  which  the  production  of  steel  was 
enormously  increased  ;  so,  too,  the  hard,  dull  iron 
of  man's  earthly  history  is,  one  day,  to  have  a 
blast  of  air  poured  over  it — the  breath  of  the 
Almighty — whereby  it  will  be  converted  into 
something  quite  different,  and  by  a  far  better  than 
Bessemer  process.  We  can  only  dimly  conjecture, 
at  present,  the  meaning  of  sin,  sorrow,  pain,  but 
the   point  which   Paul  presses  is,  that  these  are 


1 8  SEEING  DARKLY 

parts  of  a  larger  whole,  and  that  the  higher  unity- 
will  be  grasped  when  man  has  reached  a  higher 
level.  And  here  he  is  our  spokesman,  and  voices 
the  universal  feeling. 

We  do  not  quite  see  whither  God  is  leading  the 
world  and  the  race.  The  years  multiply,  centuries 
rise  and  set ;  meantime,  what  it  all  means,  what  is 
the  inner  logic  of  events,  what  the  revolutions, 
changes,  drifting  of  society  signify — what  they  are 
ripening  into ;  what  will  come  next ;  this  is  not 
immediately  apparent.  The  involutions  are  ob- 
scure, the  intricacies  are  complicate.  All  is 
yet  fragmentary,  inorganic,  vapory,  unfinished. 
Nevertheless  we  see  in  part,  and  that  part  will 
dilate  toward  greater  amplitude  and  perfectness. 
Hold  fast  to  what  you  see.  "  Cast  not  away  your 
confidence."  This  is  the  error  of  men  ;  they  say, 
"  There  is  so  much  we  cannot  understand,  we  will 
not  take  any  of  it ;  "  but  this  is  a  mistake.  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  as  a  mustard  seed.  Do  not 
despise  the  little  you  know  and  see;  it  is  an 
installment  of  still  better  things ;  seize  upon  it,  act 
upon  it,  live  by  it.  Oh,  yes,  the  world  is  multitu- 
dinous, immense,  but  it  is  only  a  part.  The  earth 
is  beautiful  but  it  is  only  a  hint.  Nature  is  gor- 
geous, tender,  solemn  and  gay  by  turns,  and  full 
of  suggestion,  but  nature  is  a  symbol.     There  is 


SEEING  DARKLY  19 

much,  too,  in  human  society  that  is  hopeful  and 
of  high  augury.  Civilization,  culture,  refinemxcnt, 
humanity  are  constantly  rising  higher  on  the 
shore  and  leaving  a  watermark  where  none  had 
been  before.  The  divine  purpose  for  man  is 
slowly  filling  up  its  vast  orb ;  we  may  discern  the 
general  drift  and  direction.  Some  points  have 
been  gained  in  the  long  conflict  of  ages,  yet  what 
we  see  is  only  a  part.  New  years  come,  but  the 
New  Creation  still  tarries;  Paradise  is  not  yet 
regained. 

As  you  look  out  upon  the  world,  in  this  early 
hour  of  the  twentieth  century,  you  see  an  unfin- 
ished edifice,  you  see  the  foundations  and  floors 
of  a  mighty  building,  you  hear  the  broken  jangling 
rehearsal  of  a  coming  symphony.  Whenever  you 
espy  a  man  who  is  trying  to  repent,  to  believe,  to 
pray,  to  aspire,  to  live  under  the  power  of  the 
world  to  come,  he  is  a  white  blossom  of  the 
coming  Spring.  Whenever  you  cherish  a  high 
resolve,  a  devotional  mood,  a  spiritual  affection, 
whenever  you  do  an  unselfish  deed,  it  is  the 
symptom  and  rudiment  of  the  new  constitution 
and  order  that  is  to  be.  Whenever  you  hear  of 
any  effort  to  lift  society,  to  put  down  evil,  to 
propagate  the  Gospel,  to  bring  in  the  precepts 
and  spirit  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  to  organize 


20  SEEING  DARKLY 

and  operate  them,  it  is  a  part  of  the  plan,  a  seg- 
ment of  the  circle  of  Divine  Purpose.  We  see  in 
part,  we  see  darkly  and  through  a  dim  mirror, 
and  cannot  foretell  accurately  unto  what  the 
swelling  seeds  and  tender  shoots  and  dawning 
possibilities,  of  which  the  world  is  full,  will  grow 
and  what  forms  and  flowering  they  will  take  on. 
Moreover,  this  our  ignorance  and  dubiety  is 
not  a  real  disadvantage,  if  we  only  act  upon  such 
knowledge  and  probability  as  we  have.  This  is 
allthat^God  requires. 

It  is  the  hall-mark  of  greatness  and  not  a  defect 
that  the  Bible  does  not  tell  everything,  that  the 
Christian  revelation  is  not  an  exhaustive  account 
and  full  explanation  of  all  that  men  want  to  know 
about  the  unseen  universe.  Any  school,  church, 
sect,  seer,  or  prophet  that  arises  and  claims  by  an 
inspired  ecstasy  or  by  a  psychological  penetration 
or  a  special  permit  to  tell  mankind  more  than  the 
Bible  tells  about  God  and  the  future  life  directly 
arouses  suspicion.  We  do  not  need  to  know 
more ;  we  know  enough  already  for  practical  pur- 
poses. It  was  not  intended  that  we  should  see 
otherwise  than  through  a  dim  mirror  and  darkly. 
Any  new  doctrine,  interpretation,  vision,  that  pur- 
ports to  chase  away  the  thick  fog  that  sits  upon 
the  farther  shore  and  to  let  in  the  light,  and  so  to 


SEEING  DARKLY 


21 


improve  upon  the  Christian  Gospel,  \^  prima  facie 
a  suspicious  phenomenon.  It  is  possible  for  one 
to  tell  you  so  much,  that  you  believe  not  a  word 
of  what  he  has  said ;  he  has  overdone  his  part. 
The  same  is  true  in  religion.  The  silences,  the 
omissions  of  the  Bible,  its  moderation  and  balance 
and  self-restraint— this  is  part  of  its  grandeur,  part 
of  its  credibility,  part  of  its  case. 

What  did  Jesus  say  to  his  disciples  ?  "I  have 
yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot 
bear  them  now  " ;  and  again,  "  In  my  Father's  house 
are  many  mansions :  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would 
have  told  you."  Oh,  yes  !  the  things  the  Bible  does 
not  tell,  the  secrets  it  does  not  reveal,  its  reserves, 
its  reticence  !  how  significant  and  weighty  !  Jesus 
awoke  his  friend,  Lazarus,  from  a  mysterious 
slumber,  but  no  Evangelist  reports  the  man's  sub- 
sequent conversations  with  his  sisters,  Mary  and 
Martha.  We  should  like  to  have  had  them 
printed  large  in  the  New  Testament,  certainly  if 
he  said  anything  to  the  purpose.  The  silences  of 
Holy  Scripture,  how  effective  they  are !  Now  we 
see  through  a  glass  darkly.  It  was  so  intended. 
Any  school,  apostle,  or  doctrine  that  rises  up  in 
the  world  and  says,  "  Come  to  me.  I  will  tell 
you  about  God  and  heavens  and  hells  and  angels 
and  the  disembodied   and   the   dead,  about   the 


22  SEEING  DARKLY 

Millenium  and  the  battle  of  Armageddon  and  the 
*  man  of  sin  '  and  the  time  of  the  Second  Advent ; 
I  will  draw  the  curtain  and  show  you  things  to 
come : "  I  merely  say  that  was  not  Christ's 
method.  On  the  contrary,  he  said  so  little,  was  so 
vague  and  meager,  that  all  Christendom  wishes 
he  had  said  much  more ;  but  he  knew  where  to 
stop;  he  was  perfectly  poised  and  sane.  There  is 
a  voluminous  gospel  in  what  he  does  not  say,  as 
in  what  he  does. 

Evermore  it  remains  true  that  we  see  darkly. 
It  is  necessary ;  it  is  part  of  our  education  ;  we  do 
not  require  to  know  much  just  yet — a  little  here 
goes  a  long  way.  I  do  not  need  to  know  the 
metaphysical  nature  of  God,  or  about  the  state  and 
occupations  of  the  dead,  or  about  the  destiny  of 
the  heathen,  or  how  many  shall  be  saved,  or  how 
long  the  world  is  to  last  under  present  arrange- 
ments, and  when  the  great  historic  drama  of  our 
planet  will  enter  upon  another  act,  or  what  rising 
hierarchies  of  angels  there  are,  and  what  they  look 
like,  and  what  they  do,  and  how  they  subsist :  all 
this  is  irrelevant  to  my  condition.  We  see  darkly 
but  we  see  enough.  We  feel  that  there  must  be 
reality  behind  these  appearances,  that  behind  the 
universe  must  be  a  Mind  that  made  it;  behind 
time  must  be  eternity ;  behind  the  carnal  kingdoms 


SEEING  DARKLY  23 

of  this  world,  the  kingdom  of  eternal  Love  that 
shall  one  day  replace  them;  behind  man's  soul 
with  its  hankerings  and  hungers  and  thirsts  and 
clamors,  a  God  who  can  satisfy  them ;  behind  all 
the  sin  of  the  world,  a  salvation  from  it. 

Oh,  yes,  we  see  something  of  the  eternal  reali- 
ties ;  we  see  their  majestic  shadows  as  they  sweep 
by  and  the  long  train  of  light  that  follows  in  their 
wake;  we  hear  the  boom  of  a  deep,  mystical, 
solemn  sea  out  of  sight.  And  it  is  a  great, 
inestimable  thing  to  know  even  as  little  as  we  do 
and  to  "  see  through  a  mirror  darkly."  Hold  on 
by  that  little.  Add  to  your  faith  knowledge. 
Whatever  religious  truth  or  spiritual  hope  you 
have  grasped,  let  it  not  slip.  See  to  it  that  the 
years  as  they  pass  and  as  they  come  increase  your 
faith  and  do  not  diminish  it ;  enlarge  and  enrich 
your  nature  and  do  not  impair  and  impoverish  it. 
For  you  should  know  more  and  see  more  clearly 
as  time  lapses,  and  as  your  pilgrim  feet  pass  the 
milestones  and  approach  the  dark  portal  of 
eternity ;  not  less,  but  more  is  what  you  want ; 
more  life,  more  light,  more  certainty,  more  joy, 
more  vision.  It  is  a  great  thing  for  a  man  to 
live.  For,  properly  conducted,  life  means  the 
bursting  of  bubbles,  the  snapping  of  rinds  and 
bands,  the  collapse  of  quackeries  and   illusions. 


24  SEEING  DARKLY 

the  falling  of  scales  from  the  eyes,  the  sloughing 
off  of  old  skins  and  shells,  and  getting  out  of  the 
grub-state,  and  moving  on  into  light,  and  taking 
hold  of  reality  and  of  God  through  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ.  Try  to  see  ever  clearer  even  though 
through  a  glass,  darkly. 


II 

RAHAB 


II 

RAHAB 

"  And  she  said,  According  unto  your  words,  so  be  it.  And 
she  sent  them  away,  and  they  departed :  and  she  bound  the 
scarlet  line  in  the  window." — Joshua  ii  :  21. 

From  one  point  of  view,  the  action  reported  in 
this  chapter  does  not  command  unquaHfied  com- 
mendation. Actions  differ  in  quality;  some  of 
them  appear  absolutely  and  eternally  right  in  any 
possible  world ;  others  appear  to  be  not  intrinsi- 
cally excellent,  but  expedient  and  lawful  by 
reason  of  their  bearing  upon  high  ends  of  great 
value  which  set  up  a  justification  and  apology  for 
them.  In  one  view  the  hospitable  reception  of 
the  Israelitish  spies  by  Rahab  and  her  collusion 
with  them  was  treason,  yet  centuries  later  her 
name  stands  in  the  roll-call  of  departed  valor  and 
worth,  as  a  distinguished  example  of  faith. 

Evidently  there  is  a  higher  law,  a  supreme 
canon  of  moralities ;  there  are  transcendent  interests 
by  which  actions  and  careers  must  be  ultimately 
judged.  Looking  at  Rahab's  conduct  by  itself, 
it  cannot  be  applauded  in  that  crisis  of  national 

27 


28  SEEING  DARKLY 

peril,  when  her  country's  hberty  was  at  stake; 
undoubtedly  she  ought  to  have  stood  by  her 
people ;  it  was  unpatriotic  in  her  to  listen  to  the 
traitorous  suggestions  of  the  Hebrew  spies  or  to 
harbor  them  for  an  hour.  But,  as  matter  of  fact, 
we  cannot  always  detach  an  action  from  its  con- 
nections and  environments  and  subsequent  conse- 
quences. Actions  must  sometimes  be  considered 
in  their  larger  relations,  and  a  thing  may  be 
unconstitutional  and  irregular  and  yet  be  right. 
And  it  is  always  better  to  be  right  than  to  be 
regular.  Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  a  deed 
which  in  its  local  aspect  and  isolated  is  indefen- 
sible, sometimes  receives  applause  and  a  vindica- 
tion when  its  affiliations  and  remote  effects  are 
made  clear.  At  any  rate,  the  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  hints  that  Rahab's  faith 
sanctified  and  condoned  her  treachery. 

Nor,  observe,  was  it  faith  in  a  coming  Messiah, 
for  even  the  Hebrews  just  escaped  out  of  Egypt  did 
not  profess  that ;  it  was  not  faith  in  the  unity  of  God 
or  in  the  Decalogue,  for  she  was  a  poor,  heathen- 
ish Canaanitc,  who  had  probably  no  inkling  of 
those  sublime  truths.  Rahab's  faith  was  simply 
the  presentiment — amounting  to  a  profound  con- 
viction— that  this  wonderful,  conquering  race  that 
had  been    campaigning  through  the  land,  would 


RAHAB  29 

take  Jericho,  eject  the  inhabitants  and  settle  on 
their  premises ;  that  these  hordes  pouring  out  of 
Egypt  into  Canaan  had  the  unseen  and  upper 
powers  on  their  part;  and  that  the  omens  of 
victory  perched  upon  their  banners.  She  had 
heard  that  this  multitudinous  and  aggressive 
people  was  spreading  and  rising  like  a  freshet  in 
spring-time,  she  may  have  heard  of  how  they 
forded  the  Red  Sea  and  of  their  victory  over 
Sihon  and  Og,  and  she  believed  that  her  country- 
men could  not  stand  up  against  the  God  of  these 
strong  Hebrews,  that  He  had  greater  power  and 
skill  than  the  gods  of  Canaan.  And  this  simple 
conviction  and  clear  insight  of  the  situation  con- 
nected Rahab  with  the  world's  immense  future 
and  saved  her,  joined  her  by  a  moral  sympathy 
with  that  race  from  which  Messiah  was  to  spring 
and  in  whom  the  whole  earth  is  to  be  blessed. 

It  is  worth  considering,  then,  that  the  gospel 
or  divine  heavenly  message  for  one  age  is  not 
by  necessity  identical  or  coterminous  with  that  of 
another.  It  is  a  truism  to  say  that  there  has  been 
a  development  of  doctrine,  a  process  in  the  un- 
folding of  moral  and  rehgious  truth.  No  one 
individual,  no  one  century  can  compass  and  ap- 
propriate the  whole  body  of  knowledge  on  any 
subject;    new   informations   and   new    hghts   are 


30  SEEING  DARKLY 

evermore  springing  up,  or  else  fresh  applications 
of  old  and  familiar  truths   are  discovered.     The 
human    mind   looks    upon    the    orb   of   absolute 
truth   from    different   distances  and    at    different 
angles.    The  gospel  delivered  to  the  antediluvians 
was  the  impending  flood  and  the  instant  need  of 
repentance  and  reformation.    The  gospel  delivered 
to  the  idolatrous  kings  of  Judaea  and  Israel  by  the 
holy  prophets  was  the  coming  of  captivity  and 
exile — the  grim  Assyrian  was   God's  besom  and 
scourge,  and  the  need  of  national  regeneration  to 
fend  off  so  great  a  calamity  was  declared  to  be 
the  duty  and  business  of  first  importance.     The 
gospel  delivered  to  the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness 
of  Sinai  was  the  earthly  Canaan  with  its  milk  and 
honey,  corn  and  wine,  and  the  purpose  of  God  to 
lead  them  thither  and  incorporate  them  as  a  body 
politic.     The  gospel  delivered  to  them  under  the 
Levitical    institute   was    the    necessity    of  instant 
practical  obedience,  even  in  minutiae  and  circum- 
stantials, and  the  virtue  of  altars  and  sacrifices  to 
reconcile  them  to  God — in  some  mystical  manner. 
The  gospel   revealed  to   Pharaoh   in   Egypt  was 
that  he  should  liberate  the   Israelites  and  allow 
them   peaceably   to    leave    his    dominions.     The 
gospel  delivered  to  Gideon  and  Samson  and  Deb- 
orah and  Samuel  was    that   they  should  arouse 


RAHAB  31 

the  Hebrews  to  a  patriotic  zeal  for  their  traditions, 
and  should  defend  their  country  against  heathen 
invasion,  because  it  was  the  land  of  promise,  given 
by  solemn  covenant  to  their  forefathers.  The 
gospel  preached  to  the  contemporaries  of  Christ — 
to  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  and  to  that  Jewish 
world — was  the  impending  Messianic  age — that 
it  had  actually  arrived,  and  that  they  might  enter 
upon  a  career  of  unexampled  prosperity  and  re- 
nown, and  achieve  primacy  among  the  nations,  by 
recognizing  their  opportunity.  So,  too,  in  the 
pagan  world,  wherever  conscience  has  spoken, 
wherever  any  great  moral  censor  or  teacher  has 
arisen  to  impress  upon  his  time,  the  sovereign 
ideas  of  duty,  of  self-renunciation,  of  accounta- 
bility to  God,  and  of  the  supremacy  of  the  right 
and  the  true — there  also  and  in  that  fact  there 
has  been  a  gospel  for  that  age  and  for  those  who 
heard  it. 

Indeed  moral  and  religious  truth  resembles  the 
moon — one  age  sees  it  in  the  shape  of  a  sickle  or 
crescent,  another  sees  it  between  its  quarters,  but 
no  generation  has  ever  looked  upon  it  full-orbed 
and  on  all  sides,  or  seen  more  than  four  sevenths 
of  its  surface.  In  the  same  manner  there  is  a 
secular  evolution  in  the  sphere  of  religious  doc- 
trine ;  particular  duties,  demands,  obligations  are 


32  SEEING  DARKLY 

laid  upon  an  individual,  a  community,  an  age,  and 
men  arc  called  to  live  along  the  range  of  their 
knowledge  and  light. 

Now  there  is  no  telling  what  beliefs  and  pros- 
pects may  have  entered  into  Rahab's  prevision  at 
that  date.  We  cannot  define  or  limit  religious 
inspiration.  God  can  enable  the  human  soul  to 
see  much  and  far — in  ecstatic  moods — not  given 
to  ordinary  judgment  and  observation;  doors 
may  be  opened  into  the  heavens  of  the  future, 
hasty  glimpses  may  be  vouchsafed,  high  sugges- 
tions may  shde  into  one's  soul,  a  sagacious  pene- 
tration may  be  granted,  illimitable  ellipses  and 
parabolas  may  spring  across  the  void  of  immensity, 
along  which  the  eye  of  the  seer  may  travel,  pow- 
erful presentiments  can  take  possession  of  man 
— this  was  doubtless  the  case  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  Nor  would  it  be  possible  to  determine 
how  much  or  how  far  Rahab  saw — only  this,  that 
she  had  a  deeper,  truer  gospel  than  her  contem- 
poraries ;  she  saw  clearly  that  that  civilization  was 
doomed  and  departing — she  saw  the  handwriting 
on  the  wall,  and  she  was  not  disobedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision. 

A  grand  conception  is  this  of  the  gradual  dis- 
closure of  the  will  of  God  ;  like  the  solar  day.  He 
does  not  burst  upon  the  world  unheralded.     He 


RAHAB  33 

reveals  Himself  little  by  little.  He  tells  one  man 
and  one  age  more  than  another ;  some  are  so  dull 
that  they  catch  no  sound  of  Him,  some  hear  a 
little  more,  but  none  a  great  deal  at  any  one  time. 
One  century  interprets  God  in  one  way,  another 
varies  and  widens  the  interpretation ;  one  literalizes, 
another  allegorizes  ;  one  mind  lays  the  main  stress 
upon  the  attribute  of  goodness,  another  upon 
power,  another  upon  order,  beauty,  balance,  an- 
other upon  justice  and  irresponsible  sovereignty. 
In  a  fragmentary  way,  in  unequal  portions,  by 
successive  revelations,  God  makes  Himself  par- 
tially known  to  mankind.  Thus  the  antediluvians 
had  a  gospel,  and  it  was  their  prime  business  to 
heed  and  obey  it,  which  they  did  not  do.  The 
patriarchs  had  one.  The  old  Egyptians,  with  their 
transmigrations  and  animal  worship,  the  Chaldean 
astronomers  peering  into  the  mystical  pomp  of 
the  night  at  the  placid,  solemn  stars,  the  flash  and 
plunge  of  meteors,  the  pale  beams  and  reddening 
dawn  of  the  morning,  all  the  changeful  aspect  of 
the  eternal  skies — they  too  had  a  gospel — living 
away  back  in  their  twilight  time.  The  Persians, 
too,  and  all  the  old  people  whose  glory  has  per- 
ished, each  of  them,  doubtless,  had  a  doctrinal 
belief  in  reference  to  the  nature  of  God,  and  the 
duty  and  destiny  of  man,  and  it  was  thdr  solemn 
3 


34  SEEING  DARKLY 

part  to  revere  and  respond  to  these.  It  was  not 
my  gospel  nor  yours;  it  was  not  Christianity,  God 
manifest  in  flesh ;  but  whatever  absolute  truth 
their  creeds  and  cults  held,  whether  little  or  much, 
it  was  important  that  they  should  learn  to  obey  it. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  one  man  should  know 
as  much  as  another,  but  it  is  always  necessary 
that  he  should  do  what  he  knows.  It  is  important 
and  imperative  that  he  should  take  and  express 
in  life  and  action  those  of  his  thoughts  which  rep- 
resent things,  and  which  stand  for  enduring  sub- 
stances and  imperishable  reals.  Hence  it  is 
nothing  to  the  prejudice  of  Rahab's  faith  even 
supposing  that  it  did  not  include  several  elements 
that  have  since  come  to  light  and  become  funda- 
mental to  religion  ;  these  ideas  were  not  then  in 
the  world,  in  the  air,  were  not  available,  not  to  be 
had  on  any  terms  ;  no  one  had  conceived  of  them, 
the  soil  was  too  thin  and  poor,  the  air  too  bleak 
and  wintry  for  such  fruits  to  ripen.  One  single 
serious  truth  was  patent  to  Rahab,  **  The  Hebi-ews 
are  coming,  like  the  multitudinous  waves  of  the  sea ; 
they  are  leveling  every  resistance  before  them,  and 
are  now  breaking  in  tumultuous  thunders  round 
the  rocky  walls  of  Jericho " — this  much  was 
obvious  to  Rahab.  Moreover,  she  cherished  the 
shrewd  surmise,  amounting  to  a  profound  convic- 


RAHAB  35 

tion,  that  they  were  the  vanguard  of  the  kingdom 
of  Hght,  and  that  the  stars  and  the  equities  and 
the  currents  of  law  and  the  shuttle  of  destiny  were 
all  on  their  side  and  working  for  them — this  was 
the  fragment  of  truth  revealed  to  Rahab,  and  her 
merit  lay  in  the  fact  that  she  seized  and  acted 
upon  it. 

Of  course,  she  did  not  grasp  the  whole  se- 
quence of  events  that  culminated  in  the  incarna- 
tion of  the  Son  of  God — only  the  first  link,  the 
first  fact,  the  occupation  of  Canaan  by  the  chosen 
people.  That  was  enough  to  save  Rahab ;  that 
has  served  also  to  immortalize  her.  She  subor- 
dinated the  ephemeral  politics  of  Jericho  to  the 
greater  truth  that  old  things  must  pass  away; 
that  there  is  a  Providential  order ;  and  that  from 
age  to  age  God  incarnates  His  purpose  afresh 
in  new  institutions  and  in  higher  forms.  It 
was  not  large  intellect,  nobility  of  character, 
purity  of  life,  a  deep,  rich,  sensitive  nature,  any 
splendid  virtue  or  harmonious  combination  of 
mediocre  qualities  producing  a  fine  effect,  that 
has  set  her  among  the  immortals ;  it  was  not 
that  she  foresaw  the  age  of  Christ,  His  discourse, 
miracles,  cross,  and  resurrection,  and  the  subse- 
quent centuries  of  Christendom — all  these  things 
were  then  sleeping  below  the  horizon.     But  the 


36  SEEING  DARKLY 

fact  was  simply  this,  that  the  world  had  come  to 
a  fork  of  roads  where  it  must  make  a  sharp 
turn,  and  file  through  a  different  scenery,  and 
Rahab  entertained  the  spies  as  the  heralds  of  that 
new  era,  as  those  who  stood  in  the  forefront  of 
the  world's  civiHzation.  It  was  "by  faith"  that 
she  did  this. 

It  was   a   clear  persuasion  that  the   Supreme 
Providence  did  not  intend  to  perpetuate  the  out- 
worn type  of  society  that  prevailed  in  Canaan,  or 
to  stock  the  earth  with  the  kind  of  people  who 
lived  in  Jericho — it  was  faith  in  a  higher  law,  in  a 
nobler  nature,  in  a  better  morality,  in  a  Power 
that   works    for    righteousness    and    order, — the 
hearty  acceptance  of  this  truth  lifted  her  clean 
above  that  crude,  coarse  age,  and  has  lit  up  her 
brow  with  a  gleam  of  fame  and  encircled  it  with 
a  nimbus.     It  goes   to   show  that  one  does   not 
need  to  know  much  or  to  believe  many  things, 
but  only  to  be  true  and  loyal  to  the  deposit  of 
truth   committed  to  him.     Some  one  has  wittily 
said  that  one's  creed  should  not  be  longer  than 
his    decalogue,  but   this    is    often   unhappily  the 
case.     It  was  not  so  with  Rahab ;  she  acted  upon 
her  convictions.     Short  and  frosty  as  her  light  was, 
she  followed  whither  it  led.     A  sure,  firm  grasp 
upon  one  great  principle,  an  intuitive  perception 


RAHAB  37 

of  its  supreme  importance,  will  carry  her  name 
wherever  the  gospel  shall  be  preached.  It  is  not 
so  vital  that  one  believes  a  long  list  of  metaphysi- 
cal articles  as  that  one  faithfully  honor  and  daily 
practise  what  he  does  believe — the  doctrine  or 
duty  clearly  revealed  to  his  conscience  as  obliga- 
tory and  imperative ;  at  any  rate  this  is  what  saved 
Rahab. 

Another  suggestion  of  the  story  respects  the 
imperfection  of  those  human  agents  whom  God 
employs  to  do  His  work.  The  individuals  selected 
to  act  conspicuous  parts,  and  to  stand,  as  it  were, 
on  the  hinge  of  great  affairs,  have  not  always  been 
such  as  we  should  antecedently  expect,  either  in 
respect  of  intellect  or  of  moral  character.  Our 
policy  would  be  always  to  choose  from  the  best 
men  and  women,  in  every  sense  of  the  word — the 
elite,  the  optimates,  the  true  nobility  of  worth  and 
mind — these  we  would  anoint  and  consecrate 
and  make  them  the  commanding  figures  of  his- 
tory. But  this  has  not  been  the  historic  pro- 
gramme. God  has  chosen  the  foolish  things  to 
confound  the  wise.  Moses  in  his  basket  of  bul- 
rushes, little  Samuel  from  the  mountains  of 
Ephraim,  the  little  Hebrew  maid  who  waited  on 
Naaman's  wife,  Joseph  and  David  who  followed 
sheep,  Rahab  the  harlot,  Peter,  James,  and  John, 


38  SEEING  DARKLY 

the  Galilean  fishermen,  Matthew  the  taxgatherer, 
— these  and  many  more  such  have  been  the  candi- 
dates for  promotion. 

The  same  is  true  also  in  what  is  called  secular 
history.  They  who  have  invented,  discovered, 
achieved,  in  such  a  way  as  to  impress  them- 
selves upon  their  time  and  make  it  memorable, 
would  not  always  have  been  designated  as  the 
kings  and  captains  of  renown  by  our  fastidious 
tastes  and  natural  expectations.  Their  cradles 
were  not  invariably  rocked  amid  luxurious  sur- 
roundings or  hung  around  with  bright  blue  and 
pale  gold ;  their  parentage  was  not  always  gentle, 
their  disposition  and  inborn  qualities  were  not  alto- 
gether admirable.  So  that  had  you  or  I  been 
present  at  the  chief  epochs  and  turning-points  in 
the  life  of  humanity,  and  had  we  known  the  inti- 
mate thoughts  and  hidden  soul  of  those  who  were 
providentially  thrown  to  the  surface  and  invested 
with  power,  and  to  whom  it  pertained  to  speak 
the  last  word  in  critical  junctures,  and  to  hold  the 
helm  through  dramatic  times  of  angry  discussion 
and  antagonism ;  it  is  not  likely  that  we  should 
always  have  approved  of  their  temper,  manners,  or 
opinions.  We  might  have  said  of  one,  "  He  is  a 
Pharisee;"  of  another,  "lie  is  an  atheist;"  of 
another,  "He  is  a  fast,  loose  liver;"  of  another, 


RAHAB  39 

"  He  is  a  moving  mass  of  conceit,  a  preposterous 
fop ; "  of  another,  "  He  is  a  bear,  a  cynic ; "  of 
another,  "  He  is  a  sly  fox,  a  sHmy  viper."  Take 
any  forceful  character  and  masculine  genius  who 
has  trod  this  mortal  stage  with  a  grand,  impres- 
sive air — WiUiam  the  Conqueror,  Hildebrand, 
Henry  the  Eighth,  Martin  Luther,  Mirabeau, 
Napoleon,  Bismarck,  and  many  another — and  had 
you  stood  in  the  presence  of  such  men  and  noted 
their  foibles,  superstitions,  mannerisms,  mean- 
nesses, watched  their  conduct  and  heard  their 
talk,  probably  you  would  have  marveled  that 
God  had  chosen  such  to  represent  any  forward 
movement  or  work  out  any  high  purpose. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  righteous  Noah 
would  have  suited  us.  Abraham,  too,  might  have 
been  found  quite  disappointing,  nor  would  wily 
Jacob  have  filled  up  our  idea  and  left  nothing  to 
desire.  Samuel  and  Elijah  would  have  seemed 
stern,  cruel,  and  implacable  upon  occasion.  St. 
Paul,  Augustine,  John  Chrysostom,  Constantine, 
Cromwell,  Calvin,  Erasmus,  prophets,  priests,  mar- 
tyrs, mystics,  reformers,  saints — perhaps  there  was 
not  one  of  them  but  would  have  disclosed  some 
obvious  weakness,  some  glaring  fault,  sufficient  to 
compromise  him ;  but,  if  so,  the  evil  that  was  in 
them  was  not  allowed  to  upset  the  Providential 


40  SEEING  DARKLY 

plan.  Each  was  enabled  to  play  his  part,  because 
the  main  interest  seems  to  have  been  to  get  the 
necessary  work  done.  As  to  who  should  do  it 
has  been  a  secondary  consideration — the  tools 
have  fallen  to  those  who  could  handle  them. 
Hence,  much  "  hay,  wood,  and  stubble "  have 
been  mixed  with  useful  and  indispensable  charac- 
ters. Many  have  been  badly  pock-marked,  but 
have  been  chosen  not  for  the  evil  but  for  the 
grain  or  two  of  essential  good  that  was  in  them. 
Some  one  quality  or  force  they  had,  necessary  to 
the  time,  and  that  must  be  invoked  to  save  a 
tottering  world. 

It  may  have  been  leonine  courage,  tenacity  of 
purpose,  a  faculty  for  rapid  organization ;  it  may 
have  been  executive  ability ;  it  may  have  been  the 
power  of  expression  and  vigorous  speech  and 
trenchant  invective,  the  gift  to  arouse  and  incite 
supine  and  coward  populations — the  fire  of  De- 
mosthenes ;  it  may  have  been  the  foresight  and 
finesse  of  a  diplomat  or  a  power  of  patient  endu- 
rance and  unwearied  industry  and  indomitable 
will  which  the  crisis  called  for. 

But  whatever  property  or  trait  it  was,  upon  this 
the  soul  of  the  time  seized ;  God  chose  this  indi- 
vidual, God  thundered  out  of  His  Zion,  saying, 
"  Hie  est — This  is  he ;  this  is  My  Cyrus,  My  Alex- 


RAHAB  41 

ander,  My  Nebuchadnezzar,  My  Alaric,  My  Ma- 
homet, My  Luther,  My  glittering  sword  to  cut  the 
hard  knot,  to  shear  away  the  tangle,  to  shovel  out 
the  congested  mass  of  lies  and  cobwebs ;  this  is 
My  magical  key  to  open  the  gates  of  justice  and 
mercy  to  mankind."  Hence  it  happens  that  indi- 
viduals often  seem  to  stand  in  the  same  relation 
to  the  progress  of  society  and  the  betterment  of 
the  world  that  mortar-hods,  windlass,  block  and 
tackle  bear  to  structures  of  brick  and  granite  ;  they 
are  good  and  necessary  for  the  work,  for  the  exi- 
gency ;  they  have  it  in  them  to  do  what  no  one 
else  can  do,  and  so  are  tolerable,  are  even  ap- 
plauded— so  far  as  they  go.  Their  sole  merit  lies 
in  this,  that  they  have  some  one  virtue  that  is  appo- 
site to  the  circumstances.  Men  are  often  God's 
sword,  hammer,  trowel,  torch,  His  ox-goad,  whip- 
lash, dynamite,  to  alarm,  arouse,  punish,  shatter, 
and  overturn,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Take  the  individual  apart  from  this  function  and 
there  is  nothing  in  him.  Set  him  down  at  another 
date  and  in  different  conditions  and  he  will  not  be 
heard  of — will  die  uncelebrated,  unsung.  But  toss 
him  into  a  day  of  tumult,  of  hissing  and  astonish- 
ment, and  he  has  it  in  him  to  speak  peace,  to 
command  the  waters  that  they  subside  and  the 
dry  land  that  it  appear.     Thus  it  is  that  God  uses 


42  SEEING  DARKLY 

that  in  men  which  is  fit  and  apt  to  fulfil  His  ends. 
Four  fifths  of  the  individual  may  be  unsound, 
unclean,  irrelevant,  abominable,  but  the  frac- 
tional balance  is  just  the  thing  demanded  by  the 
age,  by  the  hour,  and  so  is  harnessed  and  set  to 
work  like  blind,  brawny  Samson  grinding  in  the 
mill ;  because  the  work  must  somehow  be  done ; 
the  world  has  a  preestablished  orbit ;  God  has  a 
path — a  destination  for  it. 

It  is  not  a  green-coated,  stagnant  pool  filled 
with  frogs,  but  a  broad  glancing  river  seeking  the 
sea ;  there  is  a  divine  idea  dominating  and  direct- 
ing all  things.  Whatever  great  and  fine  faculty 
any  one  has,  the  Master  builder  will  hew  and 
dress  it  as  a  cedar  from  Lebanon,  and  set  it  up  as 
a  pillar  in  its  place ;  the  rest  of  him  may  be  rub- 
bish. Men  are  serviceable  and  are  saved  by  what 
is  good  in  them.  Consequently  if  the  problem  be 
to  find  perfect,  flawless  men  and  women,  it  is  a 
vain  quest — such  never  have  been  here.  St.  Paul 
told  the  Lycaonians  :  "  We  also  are  men  of  like  pas- 
sions with  you,  and  preach  unto  you  that  ye  should 
turn  from  these  vanities."  In  that  word  he  struck 
clear  and  firm  the  note  of  difference.  In  the 
ground-forms  and  in  his  centrality  man  is  one; 
but  some  have  larger  intelligence,  loftier  aims, 
deeper  convictions,  more  moral  courage,  a  pro- 


RAHAB  43 

founder  sense  of  unworthiness,  a  livelier  sense  of 
divine  things,  more  idealism.  It  is  in  regard 
to  these  occasional  glimpses  of  higher  truths, 
and  the  power  of  subordinating  the  seen  and 
sensible  to  the  unseen  and  imperishable,  that 
men  chiefly  differ.  All  are  full  of  shortcomings ; 
all  have  to  fight  the  animal,  the  demon  within — 
some  more,  others  less. 

If  the  moral  government  of  the  world  had 
been  conducted  upon  the  principle  of  throwing 
out  this  one  because  he  is  obstinate  and  com- 
bative, and  that  one  because  he  is  sensitive  and 
irritable,  another  because  he  is  vain  and  vapor- 
ing, another  because  he  is  coarse  and  common, 
another  because  his  cradle  was  rocked  in  a  garret 
by  a  poor,  pale,  distracted  mother,  another  because 
he  is  a  bastard  or  a  glutton  or  the  like ;  I  say,  if 
all  the  Ishmaelites  and  Esaus  and  Nazarenes  and 
Beotians  were  cast  out  of  the  world's  story,  simply 
because  there  is  something  about  them  that 
awakens  prejudice  or  inspires  contempt,  and  that 
does  not  square  with  the  highest  standards  of 
dignity  and  fitness,  in  that  case  there  would  not 
have  been  material  enough  to  do  the  world's 
work.  Human  history  would  hardly  have  got 
past  the  ark  and  the  deluge  if  Divine  Provi- 
dence had  waited  for  men  and  women  fit  in  all 


44  SEEING  DARKLY 

senses  to  wear  the  mitres  and  lead  the  armies  and 
execute  the  laws  and  write  the  literatures  of  the 
world.  But  God  is  not  afraid  of  weakness,  imper- 
fection, and  sin.  He  can  overrule  it.  He  can 
mold  it  like  dough  or  clay.  He  can  work  with 
depraved,  disproportionate  materials  toward  super- 
lative issues. 

Not  only  the  good,  serviceable  material,  but 
the  obstinate  and  obstructive  is  manipulated  by  a 
skill  that  defies  defeat.  No  noble  scheme,  no  benefi- 
cent impulse  was  ever  given  to  the  race  that  did 
not  directly  gather  around  it  unworthy  creatures, 
hungry  camp  followers,  time-serving  hangers-on, 
to  spoil  and  disfigure  it ;  the  finger-marks  of 
human  handling  are  visible  on  everything,  so 
that,  if  God  were  to  wait  for  immaculate  men 
and  women  to  give  currency  and  ascendency 
to  any  one  of  His  ideas  and  ends  it  would 
suffer  an  indefinite  postponement.  But  this  has 
not  been  the  divine  policy.  God  chooses  the 
harlot  Rahab  to  open  the  promised  land  to  the 
Hebrew  people ;  her  lying  fabrication  and  de- 
ceitful craft  are  taken  up  like  threads  in  the  fast- 
flying  shuttle  of  the  Almighty  and  wrought  into 
His  design.  He  leaves  men  to  act  out  their 
natural  and  spontaneous  instincts  and  turns  these 


RAHAB  45 


to  the  best  account— the  actors  pass,  the  princi- 
ples abide. 

Look  at  any  new  theory,  institution,  or  order 
that   has  promise   in    it,  and  you  will    Hkely  be 
scandaHzed   by   the  jealousy,    selfishness,  spites, 
low   views,   private   interests,  of  those    who    are 
seeking   to  organize  it;    the  thing  seems   to   be 
a  whetstone,  and  each  has  an  axe  to  grind ;  but 
look  away  from  the  human  agents  and  their  in- 
firmities,   and    consider   them   as    attorneys   and 
trustees ;  turn  your  eye  to  the  practical,  ultimate 
and  final  end,  the  substantial  values  involved,  and 
there  you  get  the  true  angle  of  vision  and  the  right 
impression,  and  are    encouraged  once  more.     It 
will  not  do  to  study  individuals  too  closely ;  few 
can    stand   the   lime-light.     Judge    no    cause  en- 
tirely by  its  advocates  and  disciples.     Had  even 
the  Christian  religion  been  estimated  by  reference 
to   those  who    made    up   its  first   following,  the 
worldly-wise  would  have  said :   "  This  thing  will 
founder  in  our  time ;  will  not  outlast  the  century." 
And  had  we  witnessed  Rahab  and  the  spies  con- 
cocting treason  in  her  shanty  on  the  town-wall, 
out  of  such  a  low  origin  and  wretched  intrigue  no 
man  would  have  predicted  the  throne  of  David  or 
the  magnificent  age  of  Solomon.     But  some  one 
has  prettily  said  that  great  events  march  through 


46  SEEING  DARKLY 

gates  that  arc  set  on  small  hinges.  We  must 
study  the  event,  the  drift  and  development  of 
things. 

Observe  also  the  mode  of  Rahab's  deliverance 
— she  bound  the  scarlet  line  in  the  window.  This 
was  the  preconcerted  signal  which  Joshua  and 
the  Hebrew  army  agreed  to  recognize  and  honor 
when  they  entered  the  land.  It  was  a  typical 
transaction,  for  the  central  truth  of  the  gospel 
lies  imbedded  here.  In  that  dark  and  brutal  age 
God  intimated  in  cipher  that  He  would  one  day 
conclude  arrangements  for  the  reduction  of  this 
sinful  world  to  the  obedience  of  Christ.  The 
parallel  is  impressive.  Rahab  seems  to  prophesy. 
For,  in  this  dramatic  action  is  depicted  the  serious 
truth  that  our  world  is  a  heathenish,  ungodly 
Jericho  that  must  be  ransacked  and  revolutionized 
and  set  on  a  better  basis  ;  it  must  be  searched 
and  cleansed  and  receive  a  new  constitution  ;  a 
loftier  manhood  must  come  in,  a  higher  and  finer 
social  order.  And  to  prefigure  this  future  God 
has  displayed  from  the  walls  of  our  world-Jeri- 
cho a  scarlet  line,  a  flaming  banner,  and  has 
lifted  up  a  holy  cross,  as  a  hopeful  signal. 

In  this  Old  Testament  stoiy  behold  a  vivid 
picture  of  darkened,  depraved  man  waiting  for  a 
deliverer,  waiting  for  a  kingdom  of  purity,  right- 


RAHAB  47 

eousness  and  love.  I  can  see  Rahab  examining 
the  casement  from  day  to  day  to  find  whether  the 
Hne  would  hold  or  had  slipped.  Every  night  she 
listens  if  she  can  catch  the  multitudinous  murmur 
of  the  approaching  host;  how  often  does  she 
strain  her  eye  in  that  direction.  Through  all 
the  hours  of  the  day  her  continual  thought  is : 
They  are  coming,  it  may  be  to-night,  perhaps 
to-morrow,  certainly  by  this  day  week ;  it  can- 
not be  long  ere  the  Hebrews  are  here.  Then  she 
looks  at  the  scarlet  line  for  the  hundredth  time 
to  see  that  all  is  right  and  according  to  stipula- 
tion. 

Now  these  things  are  an  allegory.  Yonder 
shanty  on  the  wall  and  its  red  rag  fluttering  in  the 
breeze  is  an  Old  Testament  sign  of  a  New  Testa- 
ment truth.  It  means  a  beleaguered  world  that 
must  some  day  capitulate  to  a  righteous  king ;  it 
means  a  Canaan  of  idolatry,  ignorance,  and  sin, 
flying  a  flag  of  distress  and  waiting  for  a  redemp- 
tion, for  a  better  covenant,  a  new  era,  a  kingdom 
of  light  and  of  holiness.  And  the  personal  ques- 
tion for  each  one  is  this :  Do  I  know  that  I  be- 
long to  an  evil  generation,  to  a  sinful  race,  and  do 
I  long  for  a  Liberator,  a  Saviour  ?  or  am  I  content 
with  my  native  Canaan,  its  sins  and  shams  and 
shames  and  all  its  disorder  ? 


48  SEEING  DARKLY 

"  The  Son  of  God  goes  forth  to  war, 
A  kingly  crown  to  gain  ; 
His  blood-red  banner  streams  afar  ; 
Who  follows  in  His  train  ?  " 


Ill 

THE   UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT 


Ill 

THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT. 

"  But  which  of  you,  having  a  servant  plowing  or  feeding 
cattle,  will  say  unto  him  by  and  by,  when  he  is  come  from  the 
field,  Go  and  sit  down  to  meat  ? 

"  And  will  not  rather  say  unto  him.  Make  ready  wherewith  I 
may  sup,  and  gird  thyself,  and  serve  me,  till  I  have  eaten  and 
drunken;  and  afterward  thou  shalt  eat  and  drink? 

"  Doth  he  thank  that  servant  because  he  did  the  things  that 
were  commanded  him  ?  I  trow  not. 

"  So  likewise  ye,  when  ye  shall  have  done  all  those  things 
which  are  commanded  you,  say.  We  are  unprofitable  servants : 
we  have  done  that  which  was  our  duty  to  do." — Luke  xvii :  7-10. 

Had  Christ  thrown  out  this  parable  avowedly 
against  the  doctrine  that  the  end  of  man  is 
happiness,  and  that  this  was  the  purpose  in  his 
creation,  He  could  not  have  hit  His  mark  more 
accurately.  There  is  such  a  doctrine,  and  it  is 
widely  prevalent,  that  God  as  a  Being  of  infinite 
love  has  only  one  motive  or  principle  of  action, 
which  is  the  production  of  happiness.  Men  differ 
as  to  the  meaning  of  life — that  is,  what  it  was 
given  for,  why  it  was  bestowed.  The  problem  of 
existence  is  one  of  the  ultimate,  insoluble  prob- 

51 


52  SEEING  DARKLY 

lems,  and  the  most  comprehensive  of  all,  and  will 
always  receive  different  interpretations  so  long  as 
man  continues  in  his  present  state  of  ignorance 
and  doubt. 

There  are  those,  and  perhaps  they  compose 
the  majority,  who  believe  that  God,  having 
brought  man  hither  without  the  assent  of  his 
will,  is  morally  bound  to  take  care  of  him,  to 
provide  for  him,  to  support  him,  and  even  more 
than  that,  to  make  him  positively  happy,  to  give 
him  what  is  called  a  good  time,  and  make  his 
life  on  earth  a  success  from  a  material  point  of 
view  by  supplying  him  with  creature  comforts 
and  conveniences.  Seeing  that  this  is  notoriously 
not  the  fact,  and  that  man,  on  the  average,  is  not 
supremely  happy,  does  not  get  what  he  strives 
after,  is  constantly  balked  and  frustrated  and  is  a 
creature  of  great  expectations  and  small  results, 
— many,  perceiving  this  painful  fact,  have  taken 
refuge  in  the  alternative  that  either  God  is  not 
infinitely  powerful,  or,  if  so,  not  infinitely  benevo- 
lent. Starting  out  with  this  bold  postulate  that  a 
perfectly  benevolent  Creator  must,  of  necessity, 
desire,  first  of  all,  the  happiness  of  His  creatures, 
many  have  been  driven  to  the  conclusion  that 
God  is  not  really  omnipotent,  that  He  is  handi- 
capped and  obstructed  by  the  materials  in  which 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT 


53 


He  works  and  by  the  exigencies  and  inevitabili- 
ties of  the  case.  The  logic  of  the  situation  com- 
pels them  to  sacrifice  His  practical  omnipotence 
and  to  say  that  He  cannot  do  what  He  would 
like  to  do,  what  it  is  the  free,  spontaneous  instinct 
of  His  gracious  nature  to  do. 

Whatever  be  true  or  false  in  this  doctrine,  it  is 
clear  that  Christ,  in  this  illustration,  takes  no 
account  of  it,  does  not  recognize  it  at  all  as  a 
solution  of  the  problem,  but  takes  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent line,  and  expounds  both  God  and  man 
under  different  relations  and  upon  another  princi- 
ple. Indeed,  as  a  rule,  Christ  is  not  philosophical 
or  analytic,  does  not  go  deeply  into  the  reasons 
and  roots  of  things,  or  defend  the  divine  moral 
government  from  the  objections  and  aspersions 
of  men ;  rather  does  He  fall  back  upon  His  native 
authority.  His  moral  intuitions.  His  sense  of  reality, 
and,  instead  of  arguing,  announces,  states  the  fact 
as  He  sees  it  to  be.  This  is  a  characteristic  trait 
of  Christ's  discourse ;  He  is  direct,  dogmatic,  and 
final  in  His  method  of  handling  metaphysical  and 
religious  questions.  Take,  as  example,  the  present 
context :  here  the  whole,  perplexed  problem  of 
man  living  on  the  earth — man  and  his  world — is 
suddenly  opened  up.  Why  is  he  here?  what 
is  the  purpose   of  his  existence  ?  how   does  he 


54  SEEING  DARKLY 

stand  related  to  God — his  Maker?  how  should 
he  feel  toward  God?  what  is  man's  proper 
posture  in  relation  to  God?  Evidently  it  is  an 
immense  question.  We  recognize  it  at  once  as 
one  of  the  old,  gray,  eternal  questions,  old 
as  nature,  old  as  the  human  heart.  This  is  a 
stone  of  Sisyphus  that  generations  have  rolled  in 
front  of  them  and  found  no  landing  place  for  it. 
One  man,  one  school  says,  "  God  is  morally 
bound  to  nourish,  protect,  and  eventually  save  all 
His  rational  creatures  from  damage  and  destruc- 
tion." Others  say,  "  No,  this  does  not  plainly 
appear,  save  upon  certain  moral  conditions,  with 
which  the  creature  must  freely  comply."  So  the 
battle  roars  and  thunders  and  volleys  between 
opposing  camps.  It  is  an  age-long  controversy, 
an  outstanding  question.  What  is  the  end  and 
meaning  of  life  ?  What  are  we  here  for  ?  Does 
God  owe  anything  to  us,  or  do  we  owe  anything 
to  Him  ?  does  man  fulfill  life  and  exhaust  its  sig- 
nificance by  enjoying  himself,  by  helping  himself, 
by  satisfying  his  appetites  and  ambitions,  and 
carving  out  his  own  fortune  in  his  own  way  ?  or  is 
there  more  involved  in  life  than  that  ?  is  it  a  scene 
of  moral  issues  ?  is  it  an  opportunity  to  discharge 
a  debt  man  owes  to  divine  laws  and  to  God,  as 
the  source  and  sum  of  them  ?    Observe,  then,  that 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  55 

this  is  really  a  serious  question,  not  a  surface 
question,  but  one  that  is  implicated  with  the 
whole  action  and  conduct  of  human  life.  In  brief, 
it  is  a  question  of  who  shall  be  first — man  or  God  ? 
Undoubtedly  the  whole  tendency  of  human 
nature  is  to  make  man  the  standard  or  unit  from 
which  calculations  shall  be  made.  For,  if  any- 
thing falls  into  the  life  of  the  average  man  which 
he  does  not  like,  which  crosses  his  plan  or  thwarts 
his  wish  or  interferes  with  his  convenience,  or  dis- 
appoints his  hope,  directly  he  is  prone  to  impeach 
the  divine  Providence — if,  indeed,  he  beHeve  in  a 
God — as  harsh,  inconsiderate,  even  unjust.  In 
other  words,  our  native  instinct  is  to  measure  and 
graduate  all  events  and  happenings,  good  fortune 
and  ill  fortune,  by  reference  to  our  own  personal 
preference,  to  our  conception  of  what  would  serve 
our  private  interest.  But  evidently  this  is  not  the 
doctrine  of  Jesus  in  the  parable.  Rather  does  He 
teach  that,  totally  irrespective  of  our  own  selfish 
gratification  and  supposed  welfare,  we  are  to 
appeal  all  questions  to  a  higher  tribunal,  the  will 
of  God,  and  to  decide  and  act — in  every  case — 
agreeably  to  those  ends  and  aims  which  are  of 
His  very  nature.  Any  one  may  see,  then,  that 
this  teaching  of  Christ  is  of  the  most  thorough 
and  radical  sort,  and  calculated  to  revolutionize 


56  SEEING  DARKLY 

his  whole  plan  of  life.  Because  the  average  human 
being  asks  first,  "What  do  I  want?  what  will 
suit  and  serve  me  ?  what  is  my  interest  ?  what 
is  expedient  ? "  whereas,  the  right  question  for 
him  is  something  quite  other  than  this,  and  he 
should  rather  inquire,  "  What  is  my  duty  ?  what 
is  the  divine  requirement  of  one  in  my  circum- 
stances ?" 

But  let  us  look  more  closely  into  this  teaching. 
Obviously  it  contains  two  leading  ideas — one,  that 
man's  chief  business  here  is  to  work — that  is,  to 
do  righteousness,  to  fulfill  moral  obligation,  to 
accompHsh  the  will  of  God,  as  revealed  to  him. 
The  other  idea  is,  that  having  done  this,  he 
should  wait  patiently  for  the  reward  and  recogni- 
tion of  his  toil.  But  our  first  and  clear  duty  is 
work  and  obedience,  loyalty  to  truth,  to  the  right 
and  the  good,  and  this  without  any  outlook  upon 
ulterior  gain  or  advantage.  **  Which  of  you,  hav- 
ing a  servant  plowing  or  feeding  cattle,  will  say 
unto  him  by  and  by,  when  he  is  come  from  the 
field.  Go  and  sit  down  to  meat?"  This  is  the 
homely  imagery  under  which  Christ  sets  forth 
the  prime  truth  that  man  is  and  ought,  first  of  all, 
to  be  a  doer  of  duty. 

It  is  impossible  to  overstate  the  importance  of 
the  principle  here  laid  down — that  our  part  in  this 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  57 

world  is  primarily  the  part  of  a  servant,  whose 
function  is  exhausted  in  doing  promptly,  faithfully, 
thoroughly,  what  he  is  told  to  do.  Man  is  not  set 
down  on  this  planet  to  be  a  judge  of  it,  to  be  a 
critic  or  censor  of  it,  either  of  its  natural  laws  and 
processes,  and  its  adaptations  as  a  scene  of  sentient 
and  rational  life,  or  as  a  platform  of  Providential 
purpose  and  of  moral  probation,  although  the 
speculative  intellect  leads  in  this  direction.  Like 
the  CastiHan  monarch  of  whom  history  makes 
mention,  one  imagines  that  he  could  have  built 
a  better  world  and  one  more  suited  to  be  the  habi- 
tation and  home  of  man  ;  but  this  is  not  really  the 
question.  It  does  not  become  men  to  sit  magis- 
terially and  judicially,  upon  the  earth  and  time, 
as  the  scene  and  sphere  of  their  choices  and  ac- 
tivities. 

The  parable  settles  this  decisively.  Man  is 
under  authority,  he  is  under  orders,  he  is  properly 
at  the  beck  and  call  of  Another,  he  is  not  the 
master  of  his  own  time,  he  is  at  service,  he  is  a 
hireling,  he  has  to  give  account  of  himself  This 
is  the  Christian  idea.  He  may  be  philosopher, 
naturalist,  geologist,  biologist,  thinker,  or  practical 
man  of  affairs,  but  whatever  he  be,  this  is  a  sec- 
ondary role,  a  species  under  a  larger  genus. 
Primarily   and    chiefly    he   is   here   to    obey,   to 


58  SEEING  DARKLY 

fulfill  and  complete  the  great  moral  ends  indicated 
in  his  structure  and  capabilities.  The  divine  com- 
mandments, the  fashioning  of  the  will,  the  perfec- 
tion of  his  nature,  the  glory  of  God — this  is  man's 
chief  end ;  for  this  cause  came  he  into  the  world. 
All  this  is  foreshadowed  in  the  text  under  the 
image  of  a  servant  plowing  and  feeding  cattle  in 
the  field. 

You  see  the  type  of  Christ's  theology.  He 
makes  the  divine  law,  the  moral  imperative, 
supreme,  and  final.  There  is  no  hint  here  of 
the  dignity  and  divinity  of  human  nature  in  any 
such  sense  as  lifts  it  above  the  necessity  of 
consulting  a  higher  law  than  its  own  caprice 
or  natural  preference.  The  parable  does  not 
glorify  or  canonize  man,  or  in  anywise  exalt 
him.  It  calls  him  a  servant,  implying  that  he  has 
responsibilities,  is  strictly  accountable  and  must 
report,  at  sunset,  the  work  of  the  day.  Thus, 
by  this  neat  little  illustration,  Christ  cuts  away 
from  under  human  feet  the  whole  ground  of 
merit,  of  superfluous,  extraordinary  merit,  as 
though  men  could  acquit  themselves  in  such  a 
grand,  successful  style,  as  to  lay  God  under  obli- 
gation, so  to  speak,  to  make  Him  debtor  and 
mankind  His  creditor.  There  is  nothing  of  this 
in  the  doctrine  of  Christ.     "  Did  he  thank  that 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  59 

servant  because  he  did  the  things  that  were  com- 
manded him  ?  I  trow  not."  For  what  was  the 
servant  there,  if  not  to  wait  and  to  serve  ? 

Mark  how  absolutely  Christ  abolishes  the  very 
possibihty  of  men  acting  in  such  a  way  as  to  sur- 
prise God  or  lay  Him  under  contribution,  or 
make  Him  debtor  to  their  fidelity  or  generosity 
or  pains-taking  care.  Yet  this  is  not  the  com- 
mon notion.  Human  nature  is  constantly  be- 
praised  and  bestrewn  with  flowers  and  incensed 
with  applause  on  account  of  some  act  that  over- 
passes, by  a  little,  the  average  experience  and 
action  of  men.  We  cry  out,  "  noble,"  "  grand," 
"  heroic,"  "  splendid,"  over  some  deed  of  courage 
or  benevolence  or  self-sacrifice  that  startles  a 
community  with  a  shock  of  grateful  surprise,  as 
though  something  had  happened  that  ought  to 
be  published  in  other  worlds  and  nailed  upon  the 
outposts  of  creation,  to  attract  the  gaze  of  angels. 

Thus,  a  person  of  large  wealth  makes  a 
creditable  contribution  to  a  good  and  needy 
cause,  and  straightway  the  fact  is  blazoned 
abroad  as  a  princely  generosity,  a  munificent  gift. 
But  what  is  it  ?  Has  he  touched  his  capital  ? 
No,  indeed.  Has  he  impaired  his  income  ?  Not 
a  bit;  he  is  too  shrewd  for  that.  He  has  only 
given  a  thin  slice  and  paring  of  his  superabound- 


6o  SEEING  DARKLY 

ing  wealth  to  a  hard-bested  and  struggling  cause ; 
that  is  the  whole  of  his  service.  He  has  simply 
done  his  duty.  Strictly  considered,  he  deserves  no 
praise,  and  if  he  be  a  good  man  he  knows  it ;  he 
considers  himself  an  unprofitable  servant;  has 
only  done  what  it  was  his  duty  to  do.  Or,  on  a 
wild  night,  in  mid- Atlantic,  the  sea  boiling  like  a 
pot,  the  wind  blowing  like  blasts  of  doom,  a 
laboring,  disabled  vessel,  in  danger  of  being  en- 
gulfed, sights  and  signals  another  of  its  distress. 
The  captain  of  the  stanch  craft  heaves  to  and 
lies  beside  it  all  night,  and  in  the  gray  of  morn- 
ing takes  off  the  imperiled  and  affrighted  passen- 
gers. The  deed  is  wired  over  the  civilized  world 
as  one  of  magnificent  daring  and  moral  heroism. 
But  what  else  should  he  have  done  ?  At  bot- 
tom, was  there  really  any  great  merit  in  not  leav- 
ing those  people  to  perish  in  the  hungry  sea? 
He  simply  did  what  it  was  his  duty  to  do.  Or, 
take  the  case  of  a  young  man,  the  only  son  of 
his  mother,  and  she  a  widow.  He  is  her  rod  and 
staff;  he  lives  to  support  her,  he  works  to  supply 
her  wants,  he  denies  himself  much  in  the  way  of 
pleasure  and  diversion  in  order  to  be  her  com- 
panion, and  to  make  her  declining  years  comfort- 
able and  happy ;  indeed,  he  has  become  proverb- 
ially famous  in  his  community  for  filial  piety  and 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  6i 

fidelity ;  people  quote  him,  cite  his  example,  hold 
him  up  as  an  ideal  of  imitation,  dilate  upon  his 
virtues  and  his  grand  singularity  among  the 
mass  of  young  men,  who  are  either  a  heaviness 
to  their  parents  or  else  of  neutral,  indifferent 
tint.  Yet,  after  all,  what  has  this  hypothetical 
youth  done  which  entitles  him  to  such  high 
ecomiums  ?  Has  he  done  more  than  his  duty  ? 
Who  should  take  charge  of  his  desolate,  be- 
reaved, lonely  parent,  if  not  he  ?  All  that  he 
has  really  accompHshed  is  the  observance  of  the 
fifth  commandment,  to  a  degree  of  completeness, 
unusual,  exceptional.  Carefully  considered,  he 
has  done  no  more  than  discharge  a  simple,  natural 
obligation  and  one  that  would  be  recognized  by 
an  unsophisticated  conscience. 

Or,  suppose  the  case  of  a  physician,  living  in 
a  community  overtaken  by  a  devastating  epi- 
demic. They  who  are  alive  and  reasonably  well 
have  fled  and  are  fleeing  the  infected  town,  for  fear 
black  death  catch  and  prostrate  them ;  but  mean- 
while the  good  and  faithful  physician  stands  at 
his  post,  keeps  cool,  calm  and  clean,  observes 
every  hygienic  precaution,  goes  about  his  busi- 
ness, administering  with  skill  and  judgment  to  the 
symptoms  of  the  fever-stricken,  the  doomed  and 
dying,   until  little  by  little,  and  day  by  day,  the 


62  SEEING  DARKLY 

disease  shows  signs  of  waning  and  its  cruel  grip 
relaxes.  What  shall  we  say  of  this  brave  man ; 
has  he  laid  up  a  fund  of  extraordinary  merit? 
He  has  incurred  great  risk,  he  has  stayed  in  a 
poisoned,  putrid  air,  plying  his  profession,  against 
momentous  odds,  and  without  calculation  of  self- 
interest  ;  he  has  certainly  been  faithful  when  per- 
haps many  would  have  been  recreant  or  derelict. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  what  is  the  business  of  a 
physician  if  not  to  attend  the  sick  ?  Did  he  re- 
ceive his  diploma  merely  to  medicate  a  certain 
class  of  trivial  ills  ?  was  it  clearly  understood  that 
he  should  have  liberty  to  abandon  the  community 
in  case  he  saw  it  to  be  expedient  ?  Looking  at 
the  situation  closely,  did  this  good  man  achieve 
more  than  his  duty  by  remaining  among  his 
people  and  putting  his  medical  knowledge,  ex- 
perience and  skill  at  their  disposal  ? 

The  fact  is,  that  in  all  such  instances  the  reason 
why  men  are  belauded  and  held  up  for  admiration 
as  exceptional  individuals  of  rare  virtue,  courage, 
fidelity,  is  because  they  are  truly  exceptions  to  the 
general  rule.  It  is  not  because  they  have  actually 
done  more  and  better  than  they  ought  to  do,  but 
rather  because  they  have  surpassed  the  ability 
and  achievement  of  average  human  nature.  For, 
in  truth,  we  do  not  expect  much  from  ordinary 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  63 

human  nature.  Any  one  who  has  lived  long 
has  discovered  that  he  cannot  rely  confidently 
upon  it.  It  is  shifty,  selfish,  calculating,  timid, 
mean,  ungenerous,  deceitful — not  large,  open, 
noble,  ingenuous  and  true.  This  is  a  simple  fact 
which  every  one  has  occasion  to  verify  on  his 
passage  through  the  world.  And  when  one  here 
and  another  there,  and  a  third  yonder,  transcends 
the  ordinary  level  and  rises  unto  grand  achieve- 
ment, and  does  a  truly  great  and  noble  deed, 
above  the  compass  and  range  of  average  humanity, 
thus  betokening  a  royal  soul,  the  spectacle  is  so 
unusual,  so  phenomenal,  that  it  jostles  us  into 
exclamations  of  surprise,  into  shouts  of  applause. 
Men  are  not  used  to  it,  they  do  not  see  such 
sights  every  day,  they  do  not  live  among  saints 
and  heroes,  and  philanthropists,  and  patriots,  but 
among  common  clay,  men  and  women  of  human 
passions,  frailties  and  faults,  whose  whole  life  is 
pitched  on  a  low  key  and  actuated  by  selfish 
and  sinister  motives.  It  is  the  force  of  contrast 
that  evokes  our  admiration ;  it  is  the  element  of 
novelty  and  surprise  that  arrests  attention  and 
makes  the  world  cry  out  over  some  act  of  cour- 
age, self-denial,  fortitude:  "Bravo!"  '' Euge P' 
"  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant !"  In  all 
such  cases  the  individual  has  nowise  exceeded  his 


64  SEEING  DARKLY 

duty  and  moral  obligation,  has  not  done  more 
than  a  vital  conscience  and  the  moral  law  enjoin, 
nor  put  God  in  debt  to  him.  And  the  only 
reason  why  his  public  heap  praises  and  rosebuds 
and  compliments  upon  him  or  rend  the  air  with 
cheers  is  that  they  have  found,  at  last,  something 
that  looks  like  a  man,  one  who  has  nobility, 
breadth,  elevation,  a  trace  of  royal  majesty,  and 
one  or  two  qualities  they  are  accustomed  to  think 
of  as  ideal  and  really  worshipful.  It  is  the  com- 
parative rarity  and  extraordinary  character  of  the 
phenomenon  that  startles  and  arouses  and  makes 
us  enthusiastic.  Let  us  rid  our  minds  of  the 
notion  that  we  can  exceed  our  duty,  that  we  can 
be  truer,  more  faithful,  more  conscientious,  more 
loyal  to  divine  commandments  than  God  requires. 
A  certain  young  Jewish  nobleman  imagined 
that  he  was  the  pure  gold  of  moral  rectitude, 
and  ventured,  on  one  occasion,  to  apprise  Jesus 
of  the  fact ;  but  it  appeared  in  the  sequel  and 
as  the  result  of  cross-examination  that  his  ex- 
travagant claim  was  disallowed  and  that  he  had 
not  even  suspected  the  spiritual  nature  and  latent 
implications  of  the  moral  law.  God  does  not  owe 
you  a  farthing  of  compensation.  No  man  can  go 
to  God  and  say,  "  Pay  me  what  Thou  owest."  He 
has  no  case,  he  has  no  claim ;  he  has  not  worked 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  65 

overtime,  he  has  done  no  more  and  no  better  than 
he  should  have  done,  and  than  could  reason- 
ably be  expected  of  him,  in  his  circumstances. 
Mark  this  well ;  it  is  a  doctrine  men  need  to  hear 
and  heed.  The  best  you  can  do,  your  master- 
piece in  that  line,  your  highest  strain  of  moral 
effort,  is  no  more  than  God  requires,  hopes  for, 
sets  up  ahead  of  you,  as  the  goal  toward  which 
you  should  run.  Let  us  seize  this  sublime  idea  of 
duty,  our  whole  duty,  as  the  very  least  that  can 
be  required.  God  can  ask  no  less  of  any  moral 
being  than  that  he  should  discharge  his  plain 
duty.  All  boasting  is  excluded.  When  you  have 
done  all,  when  you  have  fulfilled  all  righteousness, 
you  have  only  done  what  you  ought  to  do.  This 
is  the  clear  teaching  of  Christ  in  the  parable.  He 
cuts  away  beneath  our  feet  all  ground  of  pride 
and  self-gratulation.  No  man,  howsoever  labori- 
ous, dutiful,  conscientious,  and  faithful  to  the 
letter  of  the  commandment,  has  really  enriched 
God,  augmented  His  resources,  revenue,  hap- 
piness ;  howsoever  wisely  he  has  invested  his 
talent  and  whatever  increment  of  value  has  ac- 
crued on  this  account,  this  has  not  materially 
increased  the  power  and  glory  of  God.  Man,  at 
the  best,  is  an  unprofitable  servant — this  is  the 
sentence  of  Christ.  And  the  best,  most  useful 
5 


66  SEEING  DARKLY 

men  and  women  in  the  world  affirm  this  decree 
and  perceive  it  to  be  true.  The  noblest  and 
w^orthiest  specimens  of  our  species  are  the  hum- 
blest, plume  themselves  upon  nothing  they  have 
done,  declare  themselves  to  have  been  simply 
instruments  in  the  Almighty  Hand,  take  no 
credit,  and  assume  no  superiority. 

A  strange  paradox  it  is,  that  the  more  one  ac- 
complishes that  is  really  worth  doing,  the  less  it 
appears  to  him  to  be  and  the  more  there  seems 
yet  remaining  to  be  done.  Thus  it  comes  to  pass 
that  when  persons  of  active  and  powerful  talent, 
who  have  wrought  mightily  and  beneficently  in 
their  time,  pass  away,  they  count  themselves,  for 
the  most  part,  to  have  been  a  failure,  and  their 
life  a  disappointment,  comparatively  abortive  and 
fruitless ;  because  they  contrast  what  they  have 
had  a  hand  in  and  have  actually  achieved  with 
the  immensity,  the  continental  reach,  and  magni- 
tude of  what  yet  remains  untouched  and  unat- 
tempted.  So  they  seem  to  themselves  to  be 
like  coral-insects,  building  atom  by  atom,  poor 
little  ephemeral  creatures  that  add  in  their  short 
day  but  an  infinitesimal  item  and  microscopic 
speck  to  the  slowly  rising  pile.  Yes,  the  men 
and  women  of  energy,  of  insight,  of  fertility,  of 
execution — the  thinkers,  the  workers — who  really 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  67 

add  to  the  world's  intellectual  and  moral  wealth — 
will  be  the  first  to  admit  that  after  all  they  arc 
unprofitable  servants ;  these  are  they  who  arc 
clothed  with  humility  and  who  ascribe  all  they 
are  and  have  to  the  permission  of  God. 

There  is  another  idea  contained  in  the  context, 
and  that  is  the  necessity  of  waiting.  It  appears 
that  when  the  servant  of  the  proprietor  returned 
from  the  field,  instead  of  immediately  eating  sup- 
per, he  was  bidden  to  postpone  that  function  until 
the  lord  of  the  estate  had  first  satisfied  himself, 
after  which  he,  in  his  turn,  should  partake.  Under 
cover  of  this  familiar  figure,  Christ  clearly  teaches 
that  man's  part  in  relation  to  God  is  not  only  to 
serve,  to  do  the  will  and  work  of  God  in  the 
world,  but  more  than  that,  not  to  expect  recogni- 
tion and  reward  straightway  and  publicly,  as  a 
matter  of  course  and  a  matter  of  right.  Patient 
waiting  :  this  is  also  a  lesson  of  the  parable.  And 
probably  it  is  harder  for  human  nature  to  wait 
than  to  work.  There  is  a  certain  exhilaration 
about  working,  getting  things  done,  attaining 
what  one  had  set  out  to  accomplish  and  seeing  it 
actually  finished  and  standing  a  completed  whole. 

There  is  a  joy  in  this  ofttimes  which  one  does 
not  find  in  the  patience  of  hope,  in  quiet  waiting 
for   a   longed-for   consummation.      Taking    man 


68  SEEING  DARKLY 

as  he  is  made,  a  restless,  hungry,  ambitious, 
discontented  creature,  full  of  clamors  and  crav- 
ings and  unsatisfied  desires — waiting  for  a  desider- 
atum is  about  the  hardest  thing  he  can  be  set 
to  do.  Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  patience  is 
one  of  the  regal  qualities  of  the  soul.  Patience 
is  truly  great.  To  endure,  to  wait  upon  a  de- 
ferred hope,  to  stand  still  until  the  salvation  comes 
— this  is  a  business  that  calls  for  a  sublime  faith, 
for  grit  and  steadiness  and  composure  and  a  brave 
spirit.  It  was  this  splendid  quality  that  made  Wil- 
liam of  Orange,  and  Washington  historic  names, 
and  has  lifted  them  into  the  pantheon  of  departed 
and  deathless  heroes — because  among  other  traits 
they  possessed  this  Olympian  serenity  of  soul, 
this  power  of  holding  on  by  a  forlorn  hope,  which 
^et  was  to  them  a  virtuality,  a  sure  divination  and 
presentiment  of  eventual  victory.  No  one  can  be 
really  great  without  patience.  You  must  know 
how  to  wait,  how  to  accept  defeat  gracefully,  how 
to  bow  to  the  inevitable  fact,  in  sure  hope  of  a 
better  and  blessed  future.  To  wait,  in  a  world 
constituted  as  this,  is  quite  as  important  as  to 
work.  Indeed,  they  are  probably  numerically 
more,  by  far,  who  can  work  industriously  and 
diligently  than  can  wait  contentedly  and  quietly. 
Man  is  hasty,  eager,  impulsive ;  he  will  compress 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  69 

results;  he  will  sup  immediately  upon  coming 
from  the  field ;  he  must  have  his  wages  promptly. 
His  money  is  due  as  soon  as  his  service  is  ren- 
dered ;  this  is  his  rule ;  but  it  is  not  God's  law  in 
the  kingdom  of  Providence.  Quite  otherwise 
For,  if  history  and  human  experience,  collectively 
considered,  carry  any  lesson,  it  is  just  this :  That 
the  pay,  the  hard  cash,  does  not  come  directly  upon 
the  completion  of  the  work. 

All  experience  confirms  this  conclusion,  that 
this  world  is  not  a  scene  of  exact  adjustments  and 
fair  compensations.  Ask  the  martyrs,  the  wit- 
nesses for  any  great,  imperiled  truth,  the  patri- 
ots, the  workers  in  any  field  of  high  enterprise, 
the  inventors,  the  discoverers,  the  heroic  men  and 
women  who  have  sacrificed  themselves  and  their 
all  in  some  great  interest  whether  they  received 
an  offset  and  material  consideration  for  all  their 
toil,  pain,  anxiety  and  mortification,  and  they  will 
say :  No,  not  in  coin,  not  in  gold,  not  in  houses 
and  lands  and  fine  raiment  and  chariots,  not  in 
praise  and  pudding ;  but  in  the  answer  of  a  good 
conscience,  in  a  consciousness  of  rectitude,  and  in 
the  blessed  hope  of  ultimate  reward  in  a  day  of 
righteous  judgment. 

Nothing  is  more  notorious  than  that  the  ser- 
vants of  God  do  not  get  paid  promptly  in  this 


70  SEEING  DARKLY 

world.  The  world  is  not  built  that  way.  It  is 
rather  built  upon  the  principle  announced  in  the 
text,  '*  Gird  thyself,  and  serve  me,  .  .  .  and  after- 
ward thou  shalt  eat  and  drink."  But  this  does  not 
suit  the  taste  of  most  men  ;  they  want  to  sup  now, 
when  things  are  savory  and  smoking.  And  by 
consequence  it  turns  out  that  seeing  they  cannot 
do  this,  but  are  obliged  to  wait,  many  wax  weary 
and  fall  into  ill  humor  and  fret  at  inequalities 
of  divine  Providence,  and  the  hard  logic  of 
events,  and  the  mystery  of  God's  ways  with  men, 
who,  in  place  of  dealing  out  microscopic  justice 
here  and  now,  often  leaves  them  in  the  lurch,  in 
suspense,  in  darkness,  in  humiliation.  This  is,  at 
bottom,  the  reason  why  you  will  often  see  those 
who  a  while  since  were  shouting  lustily  for  what 
they  called  an  eternal  principle,  suddenly  weaken 
and  grow  limp  and  strangely  quiet.  The  fact  is 
they  were  there  for  what  could  be  made  out  of  it. 
They  wanted  pelf,  power,  place,  patronage,  the 
spoils,  and  discovering  after  due  trial  that  these 
were  not  available,  not  ready  to  be  dispensed, 
their  ardor  cooled,  they  became  offended  and 
withdrew.  It  did  not  suit  them  to  wait ;  they  had 
not  the  right  grit ;  they  were  not  true  metal ;  they 
did  not  ring  true ;  their  motive  was  cankered  at 
the  root. 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  71 

The  world  abounds  in  that  type  of  charac- 
ter, not  principled,  not  ingenuous,  not  whole, 
not  pure  gold;  but  contrariwise,  the  supreme 
dynamic ;  with  such  is  palpable  profit,  some 
prospective  benefit  or  personal  promotion  or  mer- 
cenary advantage  upon  which  they  have  set  their 
cold,  keen  eye,  and  which,  if  it  does  not  shortly 
fall  into  their  lap,  their  immense  enthusiasm  for 
moral  ideas,  truth,  righteousness,  education,  jus- 
tice or  what  not  suddenly  collapses  and  falls 
flat.  These  servants  cannot  wait.  They  must 
sup  at  once.  How  true  to  human  life  is  Christ's 
parable  !  This  thing  of  waiting  takes  up  pretty 
much  all  our  time.  Yet  we  can  do  anything 
better  than  that.  In  fact,  we  have  to  wait  for 
everything  that  has  substantive  value  and  in- 
trinsic worth ;  the  best  wine  comes  last.  The 
faculty  for  waiting  is  the  one  most  in  demand  at 
present.  He  who  can  wait  longest,  most  pa- 
tiently, cheerfully,  hopefully,  holds  the  winning 
card  in  life's  subtle  game ;  he  is  apt  to  get  what 
he  wants,  or  if  not,  he  sees  the  triumph  from  afar, 
and  rejoices  that  the  prize  will  fall  yet  later  to 
others  who  are  working  on  the  same  lines  and  to 
the  same  great  end. 

Verily,  this  is  the  virtue  required  of  all  of  us ; 
and   the   test  that  best  searches  out  and  settles 


72  SEEING  DARKLY 

one's  faith  in  any  principle,  doctrine,  or  policy 
is  this :  How  long  is  he  willing  to  work  and 
wait,  unrewarded,  uncheered  by  success,  yea, 
reviled,  persecuted,  in  a  forlorn  minority,  yet 
"bating  no  jot  of  heart  or  hope"?  This  is 
the  probe  that  searches  deep,  and  we  cannot 
stand  it;  we  wince  and  weaken.  Oh!  we  can 
bawl  out  glittering  platitudes  upon  public  plat- 
forms ;  we  can  carry  the  banner  in  the  van,  amid 
throbbing  drums  and  a  tempest  of  cheers ;  we 
can  vote  with  the  majority;  we  can  publish  our 
opinions  when  it  costs  nothing,  when  it  is  per- 
fectly safe  and  quite  popular ;  but  to  return  from 
the  field  after  a  day's  plowing  and  feeding 
cattle,  and  then  gird  one's  self  to  wait — this  is  a 
thing  of  different  complection ;  this  goes  to  the 
root  of  the  matter ;  this  declares  a  man,  identifies 
him,  shows  him  up,  and  ascertains  whether  he  be 
a  dishonest  wind-bag  and  canting  hypocrite,  mouth- 
ing a  histrionic  part  for  appearance ;  a  poor,  false 
creature,  covered  with  electro-plating  to  disguise 
the  base  elements  in  him — or  a  true  man  with  a 
vitalized  conscience,  the  courageous,  columnar 
champion  of  a  truth  he  holds  dear  and  is  ready  to 
work  for,  waiting  for  its  coming  in  great  power 
and  glory ; — yea,  even  to  die  for  it. 

Learn  a  lesson  from  Christ's  parable  of  the  wait- 


THE  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANT  73 

ing  servant.  You  must  not  expect  much  in  your 
day.  It  does  not  belong  to  you  to  decide  upon 
the  date  for  any  great  change.  It  is  not  for 
us  to  know  His  "  times  and  seasons,"  "  whose  way 
is  in  the  deep  and  who  makes  the  clouds  His 
chariot,"  or  how  long  it  will  take  the  historic 
drama  of  our  planet  to  work  itself  out.  The 
eternal  processes  of  God's  kingdom  are  slow  and 
secular ;  they  lapse  leisurely,  the  stars  burn  and 
burn  out,  the  moons  wax  and  wane,  "  the  great 
ages  roll  onward,"  but  still  God's  purpose  tarries, 
gets  itself  incarnated  in  this  or  that  form  or  insti- 
tution, and  then  shatters  it  as  a  shackle  and  im- 
pediment and  unfit  for  its  use,  and  migrates  into 
some  other  shape.  The  whole  web  of  human 
history,  being  interpreted,  means  simply  man 
waiting  upon  God,  "  plowing  and  feeding  cattle 
and  waiting  to  sup  "  ;  waiting  for  fruition,  for  rest, 
for  victory,  for  heaven,  for  the  kingdom  of  God 
in  some  authentic  sense.  This  is  our  vocation. 
It  is  ours  to  plow,  to  weed,  to  sow,  to  put  in 
the  spade  and  the  pick,  to  tug  and  toil  and  groan 
and  sweat,  meanwhile  not  expecting  great  things, 
not  counting  upon  ripe  results  in  our  time,  not 
calculating  bv  the  rules  of  our  human  arithmetic 
the  value  of  our  service  or  the  amount  of  our  com- 
pensation, but  leaving  all  that  to  the  Master  of 


74  SEEING  DARKLY 

the  estate.  And  whosoever  does  this  out  of  a 
true  and  honest  heart  and  with  carefulness  and 
fidelity,  with  him,  Jesus  says  that  by  and  by  He 
shall  sit  down  and  sup.  The  good  and  faithful 
servant  shall  partake  of  God's  supper;  he  shall 
be  satisfied ;  he  shall  be  filled. 

Oh  !  the  magnanimity  and  mercy  of  God.  Not 
that  men  can  do  anything  to  augment  the  wealth 
and  splendor  of  the  divine  nature  or  make  God 
happier,  for  the  best  are  inefficient  and  unprofitable. 
But  notwithstanding  your  defects  and  limitations, 
O  laborer !  O  sufferer !  O  martyr !  O  witness  for  an 
essential  and  despised  truth  !  you  shall  sup  by  and 
by ;  if  only  you  have  been  "  faithful  in  a  few  things, 
you  shall  be  made  ruler  over  many  things." 
Gird  yourself  and  wait,  for  after  you  have  served 
you  shall  sup ;  after  you  have  suffered,  you  shall 
reisfn. 


IV 

A  NEW   YEAR  SERMON 


IV 

A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON 

"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  the  light  shall  not 
be  clear,  nor  dark  : 

"  But  it  shall  be  one  day  which  shall  be  known  to  the  Lord, 
not  day,  nor  night :  but  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  at  evening  time 
it  shall  be  light." — Zechariah  xiv  :  6,  7. 

By  permission  of  Cyrus,  the  Jews  of  the  Cap- 
tivity returned  to  Judaea  in  large  numbers,  al- 
though many  remained  in  Babylon.  The  proph- 
ets of  that  era,  some  five  centuries  before  Christ, 
were  Haggai  and  Zechariah,  who  supported  each 
other  and  converged  their  efforts  upon  the  re- 
building of  the  temple  and  the  revival  of  the  old 
forms  of  worship.  Glad  that  a  fragment,  at  least, 
of  their  countrymen  had  escaped  out  of  the  fasci- 
nations and  entanglements  of  mighty  Babylon, 
those  godly  men  tried  to  reconcile  them  to  the 
plain  fare  and  hard  work  necessary  to  the  rehabil- 
itation of  the  Jewish  state.  The  oracles  that  pass 
under  the  name  of  Zechariah  had  reference  to 
these  contemporaneous  events,  and  also  opened 
long  vistas   into   succeeding  ages.     These   latter 

V 


78  SEEING  DARKLY 

being  apocalyptic  in  character — that  is,  pertaining 
to  the  revelation  of  future  and  undiscovered 
events,  were  naturally  unintelligible  to  those  who 
heard  them — probably  to  the  prophet  himself — 
and,  indeed,  arc  largely  so  to  us  and  the  modern 
world  who  read  them  now. 

The  text,  in  which  the  prophet  throws  on  his 
canvas  a  vision  of  the  great  day  of  Jehovah,  a 
dark  day  of  gloom  and  terror,  clearing  away  at 
evening  into  a  blue,  cloudless  sky,  is  one  of  his 
apocalyptic  passages.  He  foresees  looming  on 
the  far  horizon  a  notable  battle,  which  will  out- 
rank in  significance  the  most  decisive  and  famous 
fields  of  the  world's  history.  Marathon,  Cannae, 
Tours,  Blenheim,  Waterloo,  Sedan,  Gettysburg — 
none  of  them  will  outshine  it,  by  reason  of  the 
gravity  and  reach  of  the  issues  involved.  So 
much,  at  least,  may  be  collected  from  the  prophet's 
language :  "  Behold,  I  will  gather  all  nations  unto 
Jerusalem  to  battle,  and  the  city  shall  be  taken 
and  the  houses  spoiled:  then  shall  Jehovah  go 
forth  and  fight  against  those  nations,  and  his  feet 
shall  stand  in  that  day  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives  ; 
in  that  day  the  light  shall  not  be  clear  nor  dark, 
neither  day  nor  night,  yet  at  the  evening  time 
there  shall  be  light." 

Such  a  description  foretokens  an  unparalleled 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  79 

state  of  things.  No  contest  has  yet  taken  place 
that  deserves  to  be  set  forth  in  such  tremendous 
phrase.  There  have  been  battles  in  which  pre- 
cious interests  were  at  stake,  and  when  the  destiny 
of  nations  and  of  creeds,  and  the  course  of  coming 
history,  hung  upon  the  uncertain  cast  of  the  die. 
Ideas,  institutions,  principles,  policies,  have  sought 
from  age  to  age  the  final  arbitrament  of  arms ; 
but  no  war  has  been  waged  that  could  properly 
be  described  as  a  "  gathering  of  the  nations 
against  Jerusalem."  Even  should  you  take  the 
language  metaphorically  as  a  pen-picture  of  the 
conflict  between  truth  and  error,  righteousness 
and  wrong,  even  so,  that  issue  has  never  yet  been 
definitely  settled  as  here  predicted  by  the  Hebrew 
prophet.  In  every  century  moral  ideas  have  had 
to  fight  with  immoral  ones ;  spiritual  forces  with 
carnal ;  new  and  high  conceptions  of  progress 
with  old,  burdensome  traditions  and  customs; 
pure  doctrines  with  demoralizing  and  degraded 
ones  ;  the  kingdoms  of  light  and  of  darkness  have 
been  embattled  time  out  of  mind,  and  have  rolled 
their  billows  of  blood  over  the  earth.  But  there 
has  been  nothing  quite  commensurate  with  this 
oracle,  "at  evening  time  it  shall  be  hght,"  prob- 
ably because  the  world  has  not  yet  reached  its 
"  evening ;"  it  may  be  in  the  early  afternoon,  possi- 


8o  SEEING  DARKLY 

bly  in  the  morning,  of  its  history.  In  any  case,  it 
is  obvious  that  finality  has  not  yet  been  reached ; 
the  battle  still  smokes  and  thunders.  The  world, 
as  it  stands,  is  in  a  mixed  state — neither  clear  nor 
dark — it  is  chaotic,  bubbling,  fermenting,  has  not 
worked  itself  into  proportion  and  balance  and  a 
final  form.  What  the  ultimate  phase  shall  be 
that  will  precede  the  incoming  of  a  purer  and 
approximately  perfect  state  of  society,  such  as 
the  optimism  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  and  their 
inspired  sagacity  foretold,  no  one  can  say.  They 
all  touch  lightly  upon  this  topic,  and  not  in  terms 
to  gratify  curiosity.  They  see  the  future  of  the 
world  in  a  large,  dim,  ragged  way,  and  throw  out 
curt,  abrupt,  sibylline  sentences  about  it,  of  some- 
what ambiguous  meaning  ;  but  it  is  clear  that  they 
actually  see  something  shimmering,  glowing,  glob- 
ing up  in  the  cloudy  vault  of  coming  time. 

This  oracle,  that  passes  under  the  name  of 
Zechariah,  is  a  sample  of  their  style :  the  prophet 
catches  a  glimpse  of  restless  nations  mobilizing 
and  moving  against  Jerusalem  in  some  then  com- 
ing age.  If  any  one  say,  this  cannot  be  literally 
true ;  Jerusalem  will  never  again  be  important 
enough  to  attract  world-wide  attention  ;  it  is  not 
according  to  the  geographical  fitness  of  things 
that  it  should ;  the  answer  is,  "  no  man  is  qualified 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  8i 

to  affirm  this  in  a  world  whose  fundamental  law 
is  change  and  a  perpetual  procession  of  surprising 
contrasts."  Political  complications  may  conceiv- 
ably set  in  that  can  easily  shift  the  seat  of  interest 
from  western  civilization  to  the  Orient.  It  would 
be  premature  in  any  one  to  say  what  histories  are 
yet  to  be  enacted  upon  the  globe ;  what  conti- 
nents are  to  rise  out  of  the  undiscovered  deep  of 
time ;  what  splendid  empires  are  to  shrink  and 
set ;  and  what  new  and  unheard  of  ones  are  des- 
tined to  wheel  out  of  dusk  and  darkness  toward  a 
meridian  throne  and  hold  the  heavens  and  rule  the 
earth  from  shore  to  shore.  Men  are  sometimes 
dogmatic  and  opinionative  without  warrant  of 
knowledge  and  experience,  so  that  their  confident 
calculations  suffer  by  comparison  with  the  event. 

The  simple  truth  is  that  men  do  not  know 
and  cannot  guess  what  is  brewing,  what  is 
shaping,  what  is  coming,  what  road  the  long 
caravan  of  humanity  will  take,  or  in  what  hemi- 
sphere and  in  what  lands  the  great  epic  actions 
will  yet  be  done  that  shall  promote  the  advancing 
destinies  of  the  race  and  manifest  the  increasing 
purpose  of  God.  All  this  lies  in  the  shadow,  lies 
silent  on  the  verge  of  time,  is  a  subject  of  politi- 
cal conjecture  or  of  apocalyptic  dreaming.  For 
practical    use,    however,    the    prevision    of    the 


82  SEEING  DARKLY 

• 

prophet  in  the  text  need  not  be  restricted  to  any- 
one era  or  event,  howsoever  conspicuous  and 
cardinal.  In  a  general  way,  it  announces  a  truth 
of  universal  validity,  and  is  a  descriptive  mark  of 
every  age.  Indeed,  it  is  denominative  of  the 
whole  scheme  of  things  under  which  we  live, 
not  alone  that  generation  which,  according  to 
Zechariah,  shall  see  the  confederated  nations  gird- 
ling Jerusalem  with  armies  and  trenches  and 
blazing  camp-fires  and  bristling  steel,  but  all  the 
ages  and  generations  of  man  on  the  earth  have 
been  neither  clear  nor  dark. 

The  last  phase  of  affairs,  the  last  great  day  of 
the  reigning  regime^  will  simply  be,  in  this  respect, 
an  epitome  and  culminating  expression  of  all  that 
has  gone  before.  There  never  has  been  a  time  of 
the  world  to  which  this  terse  and  pithy  sentence  of 
the  Hebrew  prophet  was  not  applicable.  It  is  true 
not  only  of  the  historic  evolution  of  the  race,  but 
also  in  the  realm  of  nature.  Nature,  as  it  bears 
upon  moral  law  and  the  demonstration  of  moral 
truth,  is  neither  "  clear  nor  dark."  The  physical 
universe  establishes  a  few  great  principles,  and 
proves  certain  things  about  God,  provided  one's 
mind  be  ready  to  admit  the  doctrine  of  a  personal 
Creator.  Power,  precision,  adaptation,  order, 
wisdom,  method,  are  evinced  in  the  times,  veloci- 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  83 

ties,  and  punctualities  of  the  sidereal  heavens. 
Sentient  life  also  is  maintained  on  the  planet  by 
the  virtues  of  sun,  air,  and  rain,  so  that  each 
species  is  supplied  with  proper  food.  Nature  is 
not  totally  dark ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  it 
perfectly  clear.  It  does  not  speak  decisively  con- 
cerning the  eternity  of  God,  His  absolute,  un- 
caused, uncommenced  existence,  else  it  would  not 
be  possible  to  assign  eternity  to  matter  and  force. 
It  is  a  revelation  of  God,  in  some  aspects  yet 
only  the  Old  Testament  so  to  speak,  for  it  does 
not  tell  nearly  all  nor  the  best  part.  The  opulent, 
inexhaustible,  infinite  God  does  not  arrive  at  com- 
plete self-disclosure  in  nature ;  if  He  did,  athe- 
istic materialism  could  not  exist,  would  have  no 
standing. 

A  person  addicted  to  the  narrow  and  exclu- 
sive study  of  physics  may  easily  issue  out  of  his 
investigations  a  religious  sceptic,  because  he  sees 
only  obscure  footprints  of  the  Supreme,  a  tre- 
mendous, anonymous,  inexorable  energy  moving 
on  the  whole  cosmic  order  with  mechanical  pre- 
cision and  in  an  unconscious  way.  One  does  not 
discover  in  nature  a  Being  who  is  the  sum  of  all 
moral  perfections.  One  finds  much  there  that  is 
capricious,  incalculable,  perplexing.  The  idea  of 
God   as  a  person,  as   the  prius  of  all  things,  as 


84  SEEING  DARKLY 

holy,  just,  good — cannot  be  constructed  out  of 
natural  laws  and  processes — out  of  matter,  motion 
and  force.  There  is  the  same  alternation  of  light 
and  dark  in  the  revolutions  of  history  and  in 
the  corporate  life  of  mankind.  Take  for  an  ex- 
ample any  divine  attribute,  and  it  does  not  get 
complete  vindication  in  this  twilight  world.  Jus- 
tice certainly  is  not  swiftly  and  universally  done. 
God  does  not  interfere  to  prevent  the  slaying  of 
His  witnesses.  He  only  takes  care  that  the  prin- 
ciples are  not  slain  along  with  their  champions ; 
the  martyrs  have  perished,  but  their  doctrines 
have  survived.  Monopolies  of  power  and  pros- 
perous vulgarity,  combinations  of  unscrupulous 
men,  often  hold  a  long  lease  and  set  their  nests 
among  the  stars,  whence  it  is  hard  to  dislodge 
them. 

One  can  readily  see  the  dark  side  if  he  look 
at  the  providential  leading  of  the  race.  The 
universal,  all-embracing,  all-conquering  love  of 
God,  as  the  very  jewel  of  His  attributes,  does  not 
shine  conspicuous  amid  the  ignorance,  barbarism, 
squalor,  and  low,  depraved  condition  of  vast  popu- 
lations. Hardly  any  century  but  has  been  filled 
with  alternate  hope  and  despair ;  hardly  any  day 
without  a  cloud ;  hardly  any  invention  that  has 
not  passed  through  a  probation  of  suspense  and 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  85 

anxiety.  This  is  the  way  of  God  with  man,  to 
set  him  down  in  a  mixed  scene,  changeful,  freak- 
ish, now  blazing  up  into  something  like  the  light 
of  demonstration — now  dying  down  into  vast  and 
awful  glooms. 

This  same  analogy  holds  good  in  relation  to 
the  Bible.  Every  religious  opinion  that  can 
get  a  living  comes  hither  for  some  prop  or  pre- 
sumption in  its  favor.  Sects  and  doctrines  the 
most  contradictory,  all  repair  to  the  Christian 
Revelation  as  an  arsenal  of  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion. No  other  sacred  books  are  susceptible  of 
such  latitude  of  interpretation,  of  so  much  infer- 
ential theology.  I  am  not  aware  that  Mahomet's 
Koran,  or  the  holy  books  of  the  Hindoos,  or  the 
mythology  of  Hesiod  and  Homer — which  were  the 
Bible  of  the  old  classical  nations  that  lived  around 
the  Mediterranean — or  the  precepts  of  Confu- 
cius and  the  Chinese  sages,  have  been  such  a 
bone  of  contention  and  apple  of  discord  as  the 
Christian  Scriptures.  The  Calvinist  finds  his  defi- 
nitions of  God  and  man  and  the  divine  moral  gov- 
ernment there.  The  Romanist  finds  his  hierarchy 
and  sacramental  grace.  The  Quietist  finds  his 
inner  hght  and  "  silent  waiting  "  and  '*  mystic  ec- 
stasy "  and  intense  subjectivity.  The  Millenarian 
finds  his  views  touching  the  Second  Advent  and 


86  SEEING  DARKLY 

the  national  restoration  of  Israel.  The  literalist 
and  the  allegorizer  each  find  support  for  their 
methods  and  conclusions  in  the  Bible. 

Critics  may  allege  that  this  proves  too  much, 
hence  nothing  at  all,  and  is  an  argument  against 
the  authenticity  of  the  Christian  Scriptures ;  but,  if 
so,  it  is  in  keeping  with  all  the  other  wonders  of 
Divine  Self-disclosure,  It  is  neither  clear  nor 
dark.  If  conflicting  theologies  did  not  pitch 
their  tents  upon  this  field ;  if  the  Bible  were  lifted 
high  above  all  controversy ;  if  its  true  sense  and 
intention  were  perfectly  luminous  and  transpar- 
ent, this  would  be  totally  unlike  God's  treatment 
of  man  and  mode  of  action — in  nature  and  in 
Providence.  But,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  God  is 
self-consistent  everywhere,  and  in  all  places  of 
His  dominion.  One  points  his  telescope  to  the 
skies  and  his  microscope  to  the  microcosm  on  the 
leaf  or  in  the  drop  of  water,  and  says,  "  I  find 
skill,  order,  adaptation,  here  ;  but  not  holiness  or 
justice."  Thereupon  he  turns  over  the  leaves  of 
history  and  reads  how  the  world  has  rolled 
through  authentic  time,  out  of  darkness  into 
light,  out  of  the  Orient  into  the  Occident,  out  of 
Asia  into  Europe,  out  of  the  stagnation  of  the 
East  into  the  energy  and  adventure  of  the  West. 
"  Oh,"  he  says,  "  this  is  great  and  wonderful,  but 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  87 

not  quite  satisfactory.  I  would  have  made  the  ver- 
dict of  history  more  decisive ;  I  would  have  made 
more  examples,  and  given  instant  emphatic  con- 
demnation of  the  wrong  and  a  triumphant  vindi- 
cation of  the  right." 

Next  he  opens  the  Bible  and  finds  that  the 
same  analogy  reigns  there;  upon  some  ques- 
tions it  is  day,  upon  others  it  is  dark.  In  other 
words,  the  disclosure  of  Deity  to  mankind  is 
an  ascending  scale,  starting  with  nature,  rising 
into  providential  action,  and  culminating  in  the 
gospel;  and  everywhere  there  is  haziness  in 
the  air,  clear  and  solar  light  on  some  topics,  fog 
and  doubt  on  others. 

But  while  this  is  confessedly  true,  the  prophet's 
oracle  is  encouraging  in  that  it  affirms  that  the 
world  is  headed  in  the  right  direction  and  moving 
steadily  toward  the  light.  His  optimism  is  not  of 
the  deistical  sort,  which  declares  that  whatever  is, 
is  right ;  it  is  rather  a  modification  of  this,  a  con- 
viction that  whatever  is  in  process  of  becoming — 
whatever  is  continuously  on  the  way  to  be — 
the  ultimate  stage,  the  finality  that  will  be  right — 
it  will  be  light  at  evening  time. 

This  is  a  very  comfortable  doctrine,  that  what- 
ever appearances  may  indicate  to  the  contrary, 
and  however  dim  the   outlook  for  goodness  and 


88  SEEING  DARKLY 

truth  in  the  earth  may  be,  the  broad  tendency  is 
in  that  direction ;  the  world  is  revolving  through 
slow  secular  ages  out  of  darkness  into  day; 
out  of  a  crude,  sour,  astringent  state  toward 
an  eternity  of  summer  and  a  golden  fruitage — 
this  evidently  is  the  vision  of  the  Hebrew 
prophet.  It  is  the  burden  of  all  true  prophecy 
that  the  morning  must  chase  the  night ;  that  good 
must  overcome  evil ;  that  the  Christ  must  cast  out 
Satan. 

Moreover,  standing  to-day  on  the  edge  of  a 
vanishing  year,  it  is  spontaneous  and  becoming 
in  one  to  reflect  upon  this  blessed  and  cheering 
fact,  that  all  the  dark  ages  and  dispensations  that 
have  rolled  their  firmaments  over  this  world  have 
been  unconsciously  seeking  a  clear,  placid,  splen- 
did sunset,  and  shall  finally  ultimate  in  it,  as  the 
only  solution  that  can  explain  them.  The  sun 
must  set  round  and  red,  and  broad  and  full ;  there 
must  be  "  light  at  evening,"  else  we  shall  not  be 
able  to  expound  the  mystery  of  sin  and  man. 

This  is  a  great  generalization  that  all  the  ages 
of  human  history  and  all  its  civilizations,  from 
the  Mongol  to  the  Greek,  from  the  aboriginal 
man  or  the  paleolithic  man,  clear  up  to  the 
summit  and  highest  specimen  of  the  species, 
and  all  the  ages  of  stone  and  iron  and  lead  and 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  89 

bronze;  of  old  primeval  giants  and  barbaric  king- 
doms, that  once  rejoiced  in  their  rude,  uncouth 
strength,  but  went  out,  star  after  star,  all  of  them, 
and  have  been  unconsciously  groping  their  way 
toward  something  better,  a  more  stable  constitu- 
tion, a  city  of  God,  the  kingdom  of  God  and  of 
His  Christ.  This  is  really  the  only  consideration 
that  can  commend  or  consecrate  them,  that  each 
of  them  was  a  temporary  stage,  to  be  torn  down 
as  the  vast  temple  rose  nearer  to  its  roof  and  pin- 
nacle. The  bell  of  Judgment  rang  the  curtain 
down  upon  them  because  they  were  not  fit  for 
permanence,  were  darkness  rather  than  light, 
held  more  of  evil  than  of  good.  And  this  pro- 
cess must  still  go  forward,  the  old  make  way  for 
the  new,  the  lower  for  the  higher,  the  temporal 
for  the  eternal,  until  at  length  the  great  year  of 
Jubilee,  the  age  of  prediction,  the  kingdom  of  the 
heavens  dawns  upon  the  earth,  and  that  which 
has  so  long  lain  potential  becomes  the  actual. 
This  is  the  organic  tendency  of  things,  although, 
at  any  one  point  of  time,  men  may  not  see  it  to 
be  so. 

When  John  Wyclif  s  ashes  were  scattered  upon 
the  Thames,  it  did  not  look  as  if  his  Bible  could 
live,  but  it  did.  When  John  Huss  was  burned, 
it  seemed  as  though  his  protestantism  had  per- 


90 


SEEING  DARKLY 


ished  also,  but  it  did  not.  When  the  splendor  of 
Greece  faded  out  of  the  sky,  the  Greek  learning 
still  abode  in  the  world,  and  flamed  up  later  in 
the  revival  of  letters  and  in  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment. Phoenicia  passed  down  the  sky,  but,  in 
process  of  time,  Spain  and  England  took  up  the 
same  sea-faring  tradition,  and  did  infinitely  more 
for  the  exploration  and  colonization  of  the  globe. 
Italy,  the  birthplace  of  the  modern  spirit,  declined 
from  her  zenith ;  but  not  until  she  had  handed 
over  her  treasures,  her  art,  scholarship,  science, 
all  her  humanities,  to  Germany,  France,  and 
England. 

And  any  contemporary  spectator  of  loud, 
world-shaking  events,  who  witnessed  the  wind- 
ing up  of  an  old  and  the  birth  of  a  new  era, 
a  new  act  in  the  long  historic  drama  that  has 
been  playing  on  our  planet — any  such  living  in 
a  day  of  stir  and  strain  and  horrible  confusion  and 
tumult — when  perhaps  a  Scythian  barbarism  or 
an  army  of  Goths  and  Huns,  or  a  French  Revo- 
lution broke  out,  might  have  said,  "  The  world  is 
waxing  old  and  is  in  its  last  phase ;  fierce  elements 
of  chaos  are  racking  it  to  pieces  ;  this  ague  fit  will 
shake  it  into  ashes."  Yet  it  has  never  been  so  ;  the 
earth  with  man  upon  it  has  continued  to  wheel 
around  its  orbit,  and  has  eventually  outrun  the 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  91 

gloom  and  storm  and  caught  the  sunHght  once 
more,  and  sailed  into  a  milder  chme  and  halcyon 
seas.  God  has  apparently  planted  a  conservative 
principle,  a  reparative  virtue,  a  potential  seed  of  sal- 
vation in  this  world.  The  old  ship,  though  rocked 
in  a  monsoon,  has  finally  righted  itself,  has  never 
been  quite  engulfed.  From  age  to  age,  in  every 
century,  it  has  been  light  at  evening.  There  have 
been  barbaric  invasions,  but  the  barbarians  have 
been  at  length  tamed  and  civilized.  There  have 
been  plague  and  pestilence,  but  it  has  put  men 
upon  cleanliness,  ventilation,  sanitation,  hygiene ; 
there  have  been  cruel  wars  for  religion,  for  soul- 
liberty,  for  conscience  and  political  independence ; 
but  the  boom  of  guns  has  died  away,  the  smoke 
has  cleared  out  of  the  sky,  and  over  the  battle- 
graves  have  spread  green  pasture  land  and  acres 
of  waving  wheat  and  corn.  The  blood  of  martyrs 
has  been  like  wine  poured  forth  that  has  strength- 
ened and  solidified  the  Church.  Men  have  trem- 
bled for  the  ark  of  God — in  every  period  of 
history  some  precious  interest,  some  essential  prin- 
ciple, some  cardinal  commandment,  some  law  of 
duty  and  safety,  has  often  seemed  to  be  imperiled, 
almost  obliterated ;  yet  after  a  time  the  evil  has 
cured  itself,  a  sharp  reaction  has  set  in,  and  the 


92  SEEING  DARKLY 

world  has  found  out  that  it  cannot  dispense  with 
decency,  order,  sobriety,  moderation,  and  justice. 

Light  has  come  at  evening.  The  same  conso- 
lation abides  for  us  who  look  out  upon  all  the  sore 
evils  under  the  sun.  If  we  are  permitted  to  argue 
from  the  past,  if  there  is  any  light  in  experience, 
these  are  not  fixtures,  not  finalities,  but  are  on 
the  way  to  judgment  and  a  righteous  sentence. 
Bad  men  and  bad  measures,  all  dishonesties  and 
crimes,  all  organized,  powerful,  impregnable  iniq- 
uities, all  wastes,  abuses,  wrongs,  are  on  the  road 
to  correction ;  or,  if  they  will  not  submit  to  that, 
to  doom  and  downfall,  at  least,  if  justice  is  a  pillar 
of  God's  cloudy,  awful  throne.  Their  demise  and 
disgrace  may  not  come  in  our  day,  but  they  are 
of  a  perishable  nature  and  liable  to  become  out- 
dated and  outworn,  if,  indeed,  it  is  a  truth  that 
light  will  come  at  evening,  and  the  children  of 
light  will  take  the  kingdom  and  the  meek  inherit 
the  earth. 

Observe  once  more  that  the  same  law  holds 
true  in  personal  experience.  Zechariah's  pre- 
diction encourages  us  to  commit  ourselves  trust- 
fully to  the  unknown  future  and  to  the  mercy 
of  God,  confident  that  light  will  finally  unweave 
the  darkness  amid  which  we  walk.  No  serious 
mind  but  often  has  such  queries  as  these  spring 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  93 

up :  Is  life  a  dream,  a  somnambulism,  a  mi- 
rage, a  gay  bubble  glancing  on  the  tide  ?  Or 
is  it  a  shadow  projected  by  a  tremendous  reality 
behind  ?  Such  reflections  naturally  overtake 
thoughtful  and  earnest  souls  as  the  years  slip  by 
and  time  assesses  our  goods  and  chattels  and 
sells  us  out.  What  is  life  ?  What  is  time  ? 
What  is  eternity  ?  Whither  do  I  tend  ?  Surely 
he  must  be  afflicted  with  incurable  levity  who  does 
not,  now  and  again,  revolve  these  solemn  topics. 
The  bold  philosophy  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  called 
Idealism,  holds  that  the  whole  external  world  is 
"  empty  seeming,"  the  product  of  mind,  has  no 
more  connection  with  reality  than  a  word  has 
with  the  thing  to  which  it  is  applied,  nothing  can 
be  perceived  except  the  ideas  of  the  mind ;  matter 
has  no  existence  save  as  it  is  perceived  by  some 
intelligence,  human  or  divine.  This  is  radical, 
thorough-going  doctrine,  and  of  a  lofty  kind ;  it  is 
the  contradictory  opposite  of  materiahsm,  and  a 
highly  spiritual  philosophy.  Thinkers  in  every 
age  have  ventured  upon  ontological  specula- 
tion. They  have  inquired  :  What  is  being  ?  What 
is  existence  ?  What  is  this  vast,  boundless  world 
of  eye  and  ear  ?  What  is  the  ego  ?  What  is  the 
non-ego  ?  And  they  have  not  been  able  to  reach 
a  unanimous  verdict.     What  is  reality  ?     This  is 


94  SEEING  DARKLY 

one  of  the  secrets  to  be  opened  and  broken — in  a 
higher  and  a  future  hfe — for  there  will  be  light 
at  evening.  It  may  well  be  that  now  in  the  flesh 
we  are  in  contact  with  shadows,  echoes,  pretexts, 
forms,  but  after  awhile  we  shall  see,  we  shall 
know,  we  shall  touch  reality.  No  doubt,  this 
our  temporal  ignorance  is  wisely  intended ;  for 
if  there  were  no  temptation  there  would  be  no 
virtue ;  if  there  were  no  darkness  you  would  not 
know  light ;  if  demonstration  reigned  in  all  realms, 
there  would  be  no  room  for  hope  and  faith. 

If  righteousness  were  not  persecuted  and  jailed 
and  iniquity  enthroned,  a  powerful  argument  for 
a  future  state  of  adjustment  would  be  wanting. 
If  there  were  no  outstanding  mysteries,  no  intel- 
lectual perplexity,  there  would  be  no  progress,  no 
effort,  no  struggle.  At  the  same  time,  while  this 
arrangement  seems  to  be  necessary  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  human  soul,  under  present  limitations, 
it  is  not  installed  as  a  permanent  fixture.  You 
have  a  title  to  believe  that  whatever  now  frets 
and  troubles  you,  whatever  doubt,  suspense,  and 
fear  ravage  your  peace,  will  finally  be  cleared  up, 
will  be  explained  by  some  missing  link  you  can- 
not now  find ;  light  will  break.  Not  only  so  in 
some  larger,  more  ample  future,  but  even  here  it 
is  your  right  and  privilege  to  move  continuously 


A  NEW  YEAR  SERMON  95 

into  the  light.  Each  passing  year  should  leave 
you  a  more  illuminated  soul,  more  cheerful,  more 
hopeful,  more  contented,  more  assured. 

We  read  that  the  two-pillar  doctrines  preached 
by  Wesley  and  Whitefield  in  words  of  flame  to  the 
dead,  deistical  eighteenth  century  were  the  new 
birth  and  assurance ;  they  are  equally  appropriate 
to  our  contemporary  age.  Assurance,  conviction, 
hght,  joy  ;  these  are  of  first-rate  importance  to  us, 
who  go  pilgrimizing  to  eternity.  You  will  want 
more  light  as  you  move  on  into  the  great  dark  ; 
and  you  can  have  more.  What  will  you  do  with- 
out light  at  evening  ?  You  must  have  it  and  you 
can  get  it  from  Him  who  cries :  "  I  am  the  Light 
of  the  world :  he  that  foUoweth  me  shall  not  walk 
in  darkness."  Each  fleeting  year  may  increase 
the  inflow  of  divine  hfe  to  your  dead  soul.  Each 
year  may  bring  a  more  immediate,  continuous  and 
conscious  operation  of  God  upon  you ;  only  so 
can  you  get  light,  light  as  evening  draws  on.  It 
must  enter  from  beyond,  from  the  outer  infinite, 
from  the  sphere  of  spirit.  By  death  to  self  and 
by  entrance  into  the  sublime  spirituality  of  Christ, 
into  His  great  renunciation  and  perfect  obedience, 
there  will  come  an  opening  of  God  within  you, 
through  which   light  will  gradually  spread   and 


96  SEEING  DARKLY 

shine,    and    shine    more  and    more ;   there  is   no 
other  way  to  get  a  religious  hope. 

If  any  one  complain  that  life  is  dark,  and  the 
world  and  death  and  eternity  all  dark,  frightfully 
dark ;  that  the  fast  filling  years  bring  him  no  relief, 
no  comfort,  no  message,  no  meaning,  it  must  be 
that  he  has  not  come  into  effectual  relation  with 
Jesus  Christ,  has  not  learned  his  secret,  has  no 
spark  of  that  perpetual  inspiration  of  God,  that 
illuminated  and  sustained  Him,  has  not  come  into 
real  sympathy  with  Him  who  declared,  "  I  am  the 
resurrection  and  the  life ; "  for  God  hath  not  ap- 
pointed us  unto  darkness  and  death,  but  unto  light 
and  life.  This  is  man's  true  destiny;  this  is  the 
indication  of  his  being ;  this  is  written  in  his  con- 
stitution ;  this  is  the  true  evolution  of  his  nature 
— to  become  a  spiritual,  illuminated,  lofty  and  pow- 
erful creature,  and  move  forward  evermore  out  of 
darkness,  narrowness,  and  limitation  into  the  light 
of  a  larger  life.  Each  of  our  mortal  years  should 
see  this  process  hastened  and  visibly  maturing,  until 
at  length,  at  the  evening  time,  the  light  of  a 
better  world  shall  break  upon  us. 


V 

PAUL  ABOARD 


V. 

PAUL   ABOARD 

"  Paul  said  to  the  centurion  and  to  the  soldiers,  Except  these 
abide  in  the  ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved." — Acts  xxvii  :  31. 

Plutarch,  in  his  Lives  of  illustrious  men,  says 
that  Julius  Caesar,  on  a  stormy  night,  cross- 
ing a  channel  in  a  Hght,  open  boat,  quieted  the 
alarm  of  the  oarsmen  who  were  ferrying  him  by 
telling  them,  "  Pluck  up  your  courage ;  you  carry 
Caesar."  This  great  Roman  had  faith  in  his  des- 
tiny. A  secret  presentiment  bade  him  believe  that 
he  was  born  to  achieve  a  notable  career.  He  was 
conscious  of  power,  of  resource,  and  had  a  pro- 
found belief  in  his  star.  His  reported  language  sets 
up  a  striking  parallel  to  the  case  of  the  Apostle 
Paul.  Their  state  of  mind  was  much  the  same 
and  their  words  were  equivalent  in  meaning.  In 
both  of  these  extraordinary  men  a  thorough, 
deep-seated  conviction  found  utterance — that  they 
did  not  belong  to  the  common  herd  of  indiffer- 
ent, routinary  persons  of  no  significance  and  who 
had  no  particular  errand  in  the  world. 

99 


loo  SEEING  DARKLY 

This  was  not  egotism  nor  personal  vanity  in 
either  of  them  ;  it  was  a  presentiment,  a  persuasion 
that  they  were  born  to  effect  something  memo- 
rable and  enduring  on  earth.  This  forefeeling  has 
often  been  a  note  of  forceful  men  and  women. 
Not  infrequently  they  have  had  an  inkling  or 
subconscious  surmise  that  they  were  born  for 
some  important  end,  to  deliver  a  telling  stroke  or 
act  an  essential  part  in  the  drama  of  human 
affairs,  and  that  they  were  invulnerable  until  the 
time  was  ripe  and  their  hour  had  come.  This 
has  been  a  trait  of  large,  oracular,  and  effective 
natures,  and  it  has  naturally  operated  to  relieve 
them  of  fear,  of  anxiety,  of  doubt,  and  has  en- 
dued them  with  magnificent  courage  and  com- 
posure even  in  perilous  times  and  when  men's 
hearts  were  failing  them.  Unquestionably,  it  is 
a  source  of  mighty  strength  for  one  to  feel  that 
he  has  a  work  to  do,  something  of  value  to 
accomplish,  a  chief  end ;  that  he  is  not  a  waif,  an 
autumn  leaf  blown  about  by  the  winds,  a  sea- 
weed tossed  by  the  billow,  an  idle,  oarless  boat 
adrift  on  the  sea ;  but  that  he  lives  under  a  provi- 
dential law  and  is  strictly  immortal  until  the  in- 
evitable purpose  concerned  in  his  being  is  ex- 
hausted. 

This,    I    suspect,   has    really   been   the    secret 


PAUL  ABOARD  loi 

strength  of  great  souls,  has  nerved  and  sustained 
them  and  made  them  swifter  than  eagles  and 
stronger  than  lions,  in  the  midst  of  tumults 
and  distractions.  Indeed,  every  one,  great  or 
small,  needs  something  of  this  kind  to  give  him 
balance  and  poise,  alacrity  and  confidence  to 
meet  the  fierce  paradoxes  of  life.  We  must  live 
from  within.  We  must  be  fed  out  of  ourselves. 
We  must  be  guided  by  an  inner  light.  We  must 
draw  from  a  secret  fountain  of  strength.  We 
must  lay  at  the  base  of  us  certain  great  beliefs, 
not  merely  as  articles  of  a  creed,  but  as  vital  ex- 
periences which  shall  encourage,  inspire,  and  sus- 
tain us.  Without  this,  life  is  a  shabby,  second- 
hand affair,  lasting  by  the  mere  grace  of  accidents 
and  lucky  hits  and  fortuitous  circumstances, 
snatching  frantically  at  one  windfall  and  another  to 
keep  it  alive  and  afloat,  devoid  of  depth,  power, 
purpose,  direction,  joy,  or  any  great  elemental 
law  or  principle. 

Paul  was  one  of  the  great,  masculine  souls 
of  our  species  because  he  had  this  divination, 
this  strong  undercurrent  of  certitude  that  he 
was  allied  to  the  God  of  history  and  had  a 
part  to  play  in  the  evolution  of  a  divine  plan. 
At  this  crisis  he  had  appealed  to  Caesar  from  the 
prejudice  and  malice  of  the  Jews,  who  were  bent 


I02  SEEING  DARKLY 

upon  destroying  him,  and  was  on  his  voyage  to 
Rome.  Both  the  shipmaster  and  centurion  must 
have  been  impressed  by  his  commanding  bearing, 
and  that  a  layman  in  nautical  matters  should  ex- 
press such  decided  opinions,  without  reserve,  in 
so  critical  a  posture  of  affairs  as  a  shipwreck. 
But  Paul  was  by  instinct  a  commander ;  one  of 
those  whose  presence  is  a  tower  of  strength,  to 
whom  others  look  and  upon  whom  they  lean. 
There  are  individuals  who  inject  enthusiasm  and 
hope  wherever  they  move.  They  have  self-pos- 
session, self-reliance,  address,  the  rare  faculty  of 
infecting  the  timid  and  inert  with  their  calmness, 
positiveness,  and  equality  with  the  occasion ;  they 
are  able  because  they  seem  to  be  able,  and  round 
such  the  feeble,  frightened,  and  cowardly  gather, 
as  iron-filings  are  drawn  toward  a  magnet.  Paul 
had  the  constitutional  qualifications  of  a  leader; 
he  was  sagacious,  bold,  and  prompt,  no  grain  of 
indecision  in  his  make-up  ;  a  man  of  strong  convic- 
tions, and  who  never  faltered  in  giving  them  effect. 
These  qualities  are  conspicuous  on  the  voyage 
to  Rome.  A  passenger  and  a  prisoner,  it  yet  does 
not  occur  to  him  to  be  officious  or  meddlesome, 
to  offer  his  unprofessional  opinion  even  to  men 
who  were  supposed  to  understand  their  craft. 
With  the  sure  instinct  of  a  great,  original  man,  he 


PAUL  ABOARD  103 

knows  that  he  is  right,  and  hence  counsels  the 
ship's  officers  to  lie  quiet  at  Crete  during  the 
season  of  storm.  When,  at  length,  they  had 
sailed  into  the  big,  black  heart  of  it  and  into 
chaotic  darkness,  and  heard  the  breakers  dashing 
against  the  rocks,  Paul  points  it  out  as  the  vindi- 
cation of  his  practical  wisdom  and  seamanship, 
albeit  he  was  a  plain  Christian  preacher  and  no 
professional  navigator  at  all.  The  Roman  cen- 
turion was  evidently  impressed  by  the  robust 
manhood  of  his  prisoner  and  his  native  force  of 
character.  No  doubt  he  was  conscious  of  a  sen- 
timent of  respect,  admiration,  and  secret  homage 
for  the  elevated  qualities  of  this  obscure  but  sin- 
gular Jew.  He  felt  the  pull  upon  him  of  that  in- 
effable somewhat  that  makes  the  heart  adore  in 
the  presence  of  a  great  man  or  a  great  heroism  or 
a  great  quality.  This  appears  from  the  fact  that 
he  would  not  listen  to  the  proposition  to  kill  Paul 
in  order  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  prisoners. 
Standing  at  opposite  poles  from  each  other,  the 
soldier  recognized  unusual  power,  intellectual  and 
moral  kingliness,  a  columnar  personality  in  Paul, 
and  freely  accorded  him  the  benefits  rightfully 
challenged  by  such  a  character.  After  all,  it  is 
a  great  advantage  to  be  constructed  and  put 
together  on  large   principles — a  mighty  soul,  a 


I04  SEEING  DARKLY 

strong,  clear,  fertile  mind,  energy,  insight,  a  noble 
nature,  a  sound  mental  and  moral  organization; 
these  are  inestimable  goods.  You  need  not  set  a 
crown  on  his  head, — that  man  is  a  king  already ; 
his  supremacy  is  soon  acknowledged,  the  crowd 
makes  way  for  him,  everybody  stands  out  of  his 
light,  he  requires  no  scepter,  no  throne ;  these  he 
has  by  birthright,  not  by  tactual  succession,  but 
by  a  divine  call.  Dr.  Johnson,  hastily  working 
up  a  fiction  in  order  to  pay  his  mother's  funeral 
expenses — but  that  fiction,  **  Rasselas,"  or  "  The 
Dwellers  in  the  Happy  Valley ;"  John  Bunyan, 
the  tinker,  occupying  his  leisure  in  Bedford  jail 
in  producing  one  of  the  two  immortal  works  that 
appeared  in  the  seventeenth  century — one  of  them 
"  Paradise  Lost,"  the  other  the  "  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress," and  many  another  hero  in  the  strife,  all  go 
to  show  that  the  vital  question  respecting  any 
one  is  not  as  to  his  temporal  conditions  and  sur- 
roundings, but  rather  this :  What  is  he  fit  for  ? 
What  kind  of  stuff  is  he  made  of?  What  is  the 
range  of  his  ideas  and  ambitions  ? 

Thus,  too,  Paul  was  an  insignificant  looking 
Jew  and  all  his  circumstances  argued  against 
him  ;  nothing  in  his  position  gave  him  right  to  a 
hearing,  save  the  one  incontrovertible  fact  that  he 
knew  more  about  that  particular  voyage,  and  the 


PAUL  ABOARD  105 

best  way  of  navigating  the  Mediterranean  for  that 
once,  than  the  whole  shipload.  A  sectary,  the 
apostle  of  a  heretical  faith,  an  accused  man  bound 
over  to  answer  before  Caesar's  judgment  seat, 
without  money,  friends,  influence,  patronage,  high 
connections,  he  stood  forth  on  the  deck  amid 
the  howling  of  the  storm,  and  the  heaving  of  the 
sea,  and  the  straining  and  plunging  and  rattling 
of  the  dismantled  craft,  and  all  the  terrifying  con- 
comitants of  miserable  shipwreck,  in  the  superb 
composure  and  majesty  of  intrepid  manhood, 
telling  the  affrighted  crew  that  even  now,  at  the 
eleventh  hour,  should  they  act  upon  his  instruc- 
tions they  would  at  least  escape  with  a  whole 
skin,  if  not  a  dry  one.  It  is  a  fine  illustration  of 
the  superiority  that  naturally  belongs  to  capacity, 
to  insight,  to  breadth  of  vision.  Ordinarily,  every 
man  is  the  best  judge  in  his  own  calling,  and  when 
a  cobbler  leaves  his  last  he  falls  into  trouble. 
But  there  are  also  encyclopedic,  polylateral 
minds,  who  surprise  us  by  their  range,  versatility, 
and  aptitude.  Intellect,  clarity  of  vision,  incor- 
ruptible, stern  integrity,  moral  courage,  a  moral 
will,  a  high-souled  masculine  nature,  lifted  clean 
above  all  that  is  mean,  petty,  frivolous,  deceitful, 
faith  in  God  and  in  a  divine  purpose,  surely 
these  are  winning  quahties,  the  only  armor  that 


io6  SEEING  DARKLY 

will  stand  the  test  of  time,  of  temptation,  of  peril, 
and  emerge  unhurt  from  fire  or  flood. 

But  observe  again  that  the  ground  of  Paul's 
confidence,  under  the  trying  circumstances,  was 
a  supernatural  suggestion.  An  angel,  a  vision 
of  some  sort,  had  accosted  him  during  the 
"ight,  giving  assurance  that,  as  for  him,  he  must 
stand  before  Caesar.  Clearly  he  believed  in  an 
invisible  world  of  mind,  will  and  moral  agency 
behind  this  phenomenal  scene  of  nature.  Paul 
believed  that  personality  and  purpose  reign  over 
the  universe,  not  chance,  and  that  there  is  possi- 
ble communion  or  commerce  between  the  two 
spheres,  of  nature  and  the  supernatural,  and  that 
finite  man  may  come  into  a  real  relation  and  con- 
ference with  God.  True,  the  sea  ran  high,  the 
storm  boomed  and  crashed  round  them,  the  ship 
was  falling  to  pieces,  hope  had  fled,  every  face 
was  full  of  blackness  and  despair ;  the  only  blessed 
ray  that  shot  across  the  waste  and  welter  came 
from  that  strong,  glistening  angel  whom  Paul 
averred  he  had  seen  in  the  crisis  of  the  peril. 
But  that  was  enough  for  him.  He  believed  that 
man  is  greater  than  the  thunder,  the  rain,  the 
lightning,  greater  than  the  whole  realm  of  physics  ; 
that  he  is  not  the  sport  of  blind,  impersonal  forces, 
but  the  instrument  of  a  higher  will.    Paul  believed 


PAUL  ABOARD  107 

that  there  is  something  greater  than  matter  or 
motion  or  force,  a  kingdom  of  moral  ideas,  a 
providential  law  that  could  not  be  drowned  in  the 
vasty  deep  or  smitten  by  thunderbolts.  And  this 
doctrine  of  a  moral  government,  an  eternal  pur- 
pose, running  like  a  thread  through  all  ages  ;  this 
doctrine  that  all  things  work  together  toward  the 
realization  of  the  best  policy  for  the  whole  crea- 
tion, this  is,  at  bottom,  the  saving  clause  in  our 
case. 

Unless  this  world  rests  on  a  transcendental 
ground,  it  matters  little  how  soon  the  euroclydons 
rise  and  blow  it  to  bits.  If  man  have  no  errand 
to  do  in  this  world ;  if  he  be  simply  born  to  eat 
up  the  corn,  and  to  be  rolled  round  with  rocks 
and  tombs  and  trees ;  if  the  ideas  of  God,  immor- 
tality, duty,  righteousness,  are  a  mirage ;  if  there 
be  no  holy,  omnipotent  will  at  the  root  of  things ; 
if  time  be  not  the  stage  for  the  historical  unfolding 
of  an  intelligent  divine  purpose ;  if  God  be  not 
gradually  working  through  the  slow  secular  ages 
toward  finer  issues  and  a  larger  manifestation  of 
Himself;  if  earth  and  man  and  the  whole  nature- 
realm  are  sprung  of  protoplasmic  slime  and 
have  been  licked  into  shape  by  the  eternal,  inex- 
orable energy  of  a  blind  evolution,  instead  of  being 
mighty  shadows,  flung  by  an  ultimate  reality, — if 


io8  SEEING  DARKLY 

there  be  no  moral  meaning  implicated  in  man  or 
nature,  then  the  sun  may  well  burn  out  and  the 
globe  stop  on  its  axle.  It  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  take  into  account  the  throne  of  God,  the  kiuGf- 
dom  of  God,  the  eternal  purpose  of  God,  in  order 
even  to  make  the  world  safe  to  live  in,  not  to 
speak  of  any  coherent  theory  of  it. 

That  word  of  the  angel  to  Paul,  "  Fear  not ;  thou 
must  be  brought  before  Caesar,"  is  highly  signifi- 
cant in  this  connection.  Most  of  the  ship's  com- 
pany were  sailing  from  Alexandria  to  Rome  upon 
their  own  private  reasons  and  for  their  respective 
advantage ;  and,  i(  every  soul  of  them  had  per- 
ished in  that  driving  sea,  it  is  not  extravagant  to 
say  that  the  dismal  event  would  not  have  appre- 
ciably affected  the  interests  of  the  race.  But  Paul 
was  aboard !  Below  all  the  cargo,  gains,  traffic, 
hopes,  expectations  involved  in  that  voyage  there 
lay  a  vital  consideration  transcending  them  all. 
For  the  Christian  apostle  was  connected  with  an 
order  of  facts  and  with  an  historical  development, 
compared  with  which  the  commercial  ventures  of 
those  traders  sailing  to  Italy  were  the  merest  trifle ; 
they  did  not  stand  related  to  subsequent  history 
and  to  the  moral  education  of  mankind;  their 
call  to  Rome  was  not  in  the  interest  of  the  new 
Christian  movement,  nor  in  any  w^ay  linked  to  the 


PAUL  ABOARD  109 

moral  progress  of  the  race.  Crew  and  cargo 
might  all  have  gone  to  the  slimy  bottom  of  the 
deep  on  that  howling  night  without  irreparable 
damage  to  any  precious  interest  or  institute  the 
world  knows  of.  But  Christianity  was  aboard ! 
And  there  is  a  wide  difference  in  the  dignity, 
value  and  excellence  both  of  truths  and  of  men. 
There  are  cardinal  events,  hinges  upon  which  the 
gates  of  time  turn,  and  which  determine  the  cast 
of  society  and  the  drift  of  things.  There  have 
been  decisive  battles  in  history,  of  which,  had  vic- 
tory perched  upon  other  banners,  the  civilization, 
laws,  manners,  subsequent  condition  of  the  world 
would  have  been  unlike  the  actual  fact.  So,  too, 
there  have  been  solitary  and  singular  individuals 
who  have  seemed  to  turn  the  life  of  their  time 
into  other  channels. 

This  contemporary  age  of  ours  is  largely  if 
not  wholly  what  it  is  because  of  certain  powerful 
personalities,  and  fruitful,  formative  periods  ante- 
cedent to  it  and  prodigiously  potent  and  influen- 
tial that  have  made  it,  under  God,  what  it  is. 
The  age  of  Socrates,  and  later  of  Aristotle,  in 
Hellas ;  the  age  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Cicero  in 
Rome ;  the  age  of  Bacon  and  Descartes,  of  the 
sixteenth  century  in  Europe,  which  witnessed 
the  thawing  and  loosening  of  scholasticism  and 


no  SEEING  DARKLY 

authority ;  the  age  of  Luther  and  the  Protestant 
Reformers ;  the  age  of  Alexander  Hamilton  and 
the  framers  of  the  American  Constitution,  and 
many  another  age,  are  specimens  of  formative, 
prophetic  periods  that  held  the  seeds  of  new  civil- 
izations and  kingdoms  of  thought,  and  of  cumu- 
lative results  not  yet  worked  out.  Always  it  is 
the  moral  purpose  disclosed  in  the  march  and 
evolution  of  events  that  is  material.  The  men 
and  things  themselves  do  not  amount  to  much. 
The  men  die  and  the  eras  and  their  contents  are 
rolled  up  as  a  garment,  but  the  residual  facts  left 
stranded  after  the  tide  has  ebbed,  the  new  idea 
started,  the  fresh  impulse  given,  the  new  direction 
in  which  the  currents  of  human  society  have  set, 
and  the  altered  opinions,  methods,  fashions  and 
spirit  that  come  in,  this  is  the  supreme  interest ; 
this  permanent  substratum  that  underlies  the 
transactions  of  time  is  really  the  significant  thing, 
since  it  is  the  unfolding  of  a  divine  purpose. 
Hence  Paul  saved  the  ship !  because  it  was  neces- 
sary that  he  should  carry  the  Christian  gospel  to 
the  mistress  of  the  then  known  world  ;  the  spiritual 
life  of  man  was  in  question.  The  moral  exi- 
gencies of  the  race  saved  that  floundering  craft  in 
the  Adriatic. 

Verily,    it    is   a    tremendous    truth    that    the 


PAUL  ABOARD  in 

world  stands  for  the  sake  of  a  moral  purpose. 
Groaning  in  pain,  rocking  with  earthquakes, 
belching  out  fire  and  smoke  from  volcanic  vents, 
holding  within  itself  in  air  and  in  subterranean 
centers  combustibles  that  could  hurl  it  into  the 
pit  of  annihilation,  the  great  and  gracious  God 
keeps  this  earth  spinning  serenely  and  securely 
around  its  orbit,  holding  terrific  energies  in  leash 
and  under  control  subject  to  the  gradual  out- 
working of  His  perfect  idea  for  the  children  of 
men.  The  world  with  all  its  plant  and  scaffold- 
ing stands  in  order  that  out  of  the  confusion, 
rubbish  and  uproar  shall  arise  a  building  of 
God,  a  civitas  Dci^  a  golden  age  of  regenerated 
manhood,  a  final  symphony  out  of  all  the  harsh 
preludes  and  tangled  discords  of  this  present  re- 
hearsal. As  the  case  now  stands  the  world  re- 
minds one  of  yon  straining,  dismantled  hulk  on 
the  stormy  Adriatic.  Seamed  with  scars,  cursed 
with  sin,  drenched  with  tears  and  human  blood, 
plowed  with  battle-furrows,  smoking  with  ruins, 
crowded  with  anxious,  pallid  faces,  the  earth  has 
been  wheeling  along  through  dark,  tempestuous, 
lawless  centuries,  some  of  them  so  rude  and  bois- 
terous with  carnality  and  crime  that,  had  it  not 
been  for  this  overruling  moral  purpose ;  had  it  not 
been   that   Paul  was   aboard;    that  God   has   in 


112  SEEING  DARKLY 

store  an  immense  and  magnificent  future  for  the 
race  of  man  ;  had  it  not  been  for  this  Christian 
programme  which,  when  finished,  shall  vindicate 
the  supreme  wisdom  and  satisfy  the  highest 
ideal  and  challenge  the  applause  of  the  intelligent 
creation — there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any 
other  consideration  would  have  saved  it. 

What  intrinsic  value  is  there  in  commerce,  trade, 
banking,  coal  and  gold  mining,  in  politics,  philoso- 
phy or  mechanical  invention,  in  any  established  fact 
or  fixture,  to  make  it  worth  while  to  perpetuate 
the  human  family  and  save  the  world  from  sinking  ? 
You  cannot  find  firm  footing  until  you  alight  upon 
the  continent  of  moral  ideas  and  the  supernatural. 
All  that  is  bad  in  the  world  survives  on  account 
of  what  is  good.  The  selfish,  the  depraved,  the 
destructive,  the  obstructive,  the  animalish,  all  the 
vicious  elements  last  only  because  there  is  some- 
thing sound  and  wholesome  left.  If  there  were 
nothing  but  corruption  and  decay,  the  world 
would  fall  to  pieces.  It  is  because  there  are  a  few 
grains  of  salt  here  and  there  that  society  holds 
together.  If  there  were  not  a  moral  ingredient, 
some  pure  and  high  feeling,  noble  ambition,  spot- 
less integrity,  heroic  self-sacrifice,  spiritual  faith 
left  among  sinful  men,  the  crash  would  surely 
come. 


PAUL  ABOARD  113 

This  imposing  materialism  and  luxurious  civil- 
ization which  men  build  up  and  extol  will  not  save 
society.  It  is  mere  splendid  rubbish.  It  is  the 
phosphorescence  that  glimmers  over  decaying 
matter.  Apart  from  character,  from  faith,  from 
righteousness,  from  purity,  there  is  no  sufficient 
reason  why  the  world  should  last  twenty-four 
hours  longer.  If  there  be  no  personal  God,  no 
glorious  purpose  of  God,  no  larger  knowledge  of 
God  possible,  no  higher  life  for  the  soul,  no  goal 
of  moral  perfection  toward  which  man  tends,  then 
what  is  there  in  our  shops,  factories,  spindles, 
turbine-wheels,  power-looms,  mechanism  of  busi- 
ness and  banking,  or  in  biology,  physiology  and 
physics,  and  the  whole  mundane  machinery,  to 
keep  the  world  standing  ?  If  these  be  the  totality 
of  things,  if  there  are  no  verities  behind  and  be- 
yond them,  if  virtue,  holiness,  redemption  from 
the  dominion  of  sin  are  not  indestructible  certain- 
ties, if  there  is  no  sublime  advancing  purpose  of 
God  leading  on  the  race — in  one  word,  if  Paul  be 
not  aboard — why  should  this  old  earth-ship  fight 
any  longer  with  monsoons  or  labor  through  the 
deeps  of  time  ? 

Observe,  further,  that  although  the  announce- 
ment of  the  mysterious  angel  was  explicit  and 
Paul's  confidence  predicated  upon  it  absolute,  yet 


114  SEEING  DARKLY 

when  the  crisis  came  upon  which  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  safety  hinged,  Paul's  language  was  practi- 
cal and  peremptory.  In  an  underhand  way  the 
sailors  had  lowered  a  life-boat,  under  pretext  of 
casting  anchor,  but  really  as  a  stratagem  to  save 
themselves  and  abandon  the  ship.  Paul  detected 
the  trick,  exposed  their  criminal  design,  and  de- 
feated it.  Nevertheless,  looking  at  this  incident 
narrowly,  it  appears  to  carry  incompatible  ingre- 
dients,— on  the  one  hand,  the  absolute  assurance 
of  rescue  without  conditions  made  to  Paul  in 
vision ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  imposition,  at  the 
last  moment,  of  a  very  stringent  condition,  the 
frustration  of  the  seamen's  selfish  and  cruel  pro- 
gramme. It  is  obvious  that  here  again  crops  up 
the  ancient  and  permanent  antagonism  between 
the  higher  and  lower  spheres  of  divine  and 
human  agency.  The  unconditional  revelation  is 
made  to  Paul  that  he  shall  certainly  go  to  Rome, 
and  he  firmly  believes  and  declares  that  the  event 
shall  be  as  predicted.  But  the  critical  point  is 
that  his  dogmatic  theology  does  not  interfere  with 
his  practical  seamanship  when  the  emergency 
arises. 

I  commend  Paul's  method  of  dealing  with 
vexed  questions  in  the  sphere  of  religion.  His 
doctrine    concerning    the    nature   and   attributes 


PAUL  ABOARD  115 

of  God,  the  divine  omniscience  and  veracity, 
serves  as  an  adamantine  base  upon  which  to  build 
an  unwavering  assurance  of  his  personal  safety; 
but  mark,  he  does  not  push  it  into  an  ultraism,  a 
fanaticism,  or  beat  his  silly  head  against  rocky 
mysteries ;  he  listens  to  the  voice  of  practical  rea- 
son and  declares,  "  Except  these  abide  in  the  ship, 
ye  cannot  be  saved."  Apart  from  metaphysical 
theology  and  alongside  of  it,  there  is  also  a  sphere 
of  second  causes  and  of  moral  agency  and  ac- 
countability. If  the  end  is  foreordained,  the  means 
leading  up  to  it  are  equally  necessary.  This  is 
the  true  relation  subsisting  between  the  doctrines 
of  revealed  religion  and  the  practical  duties  of 
life.  The  doctrines  are  radically  incomprehensi- 
ble. The  nature  of  God,  the  mode  of  His  exist- 
ence and  activity.  His  occupations  and  enjoyments. 
His  immensity  and  eternity,  directly  we  attempt 
to  expound  these,  the  mind  falls  among  antino- 
mies and  contradictions  which  will  not  surrender 
their  secret.  It  results  that  our  human  knowl- 
edge is  chiefly  of  conditions,  of  secondary  and 
efficient  causes,  of  the  properties  of  things,  how 
they  act,  and  how  we  are  to  co-operate  with  them 
so  as  to  get  the  best  results.  It  is  not  a  knowledge 
of  what  God  is,  in  the  whole  sweep  and  amplitude 
and  affluence  of  His  glorious  nature,  or  why  He 


Il6  SEEING  DARKLY 

has  made  the  world  as  it  is,  or  the  mystery  of 
man  and  of  sin  on  the  earth.  The  knowledge  of 
necessary  conditions  is  ■  our  humble  sphere,  and 
not  a  knowledge  commensurate  with  the  whole 
range  of  being,  as  when  Paul  said  to  the  centurion, 
"  If  you  allow  these  men  to  escape,  we  are  lost," 
notwithstanding  my  angel  and  his  heavenly  mes- 
sage. Hence  it  is  futile  for  us  to  pry  into 
arcana  and  hidden  mysteries,  or  to  inquire.  Am 
I  of  the  elect?  What  shall  be  the  fate  of 
heathen  ?  Are  there  few  or  many  that  shall 
be  saved  ?  Shall  I  know  my  friends  in  Heaven  ? 
and  much  else  of  the  same  kind.  The  right  ques- 
tion is,  Do  I  comply  with  revealed  conditions  ? 
Do  I  pray  ?  Do  I  try  daily  to  come  into  con- 
scious relation  with  the  Father  of  spirits  through 
Jesus  Christ  ?  Do  I  abhor  that  which  is  evil  ? 
What  are  my  tastes,  temper,  habits,  choices  ? 
This  exhausts  our  part  just  now.  Our  part  is  to 
believe,  to  obey,  to  do,  to  live  up  to  the  line  of 
our  hght,  to  keep  open  the  sluices  of  moral  sensi- 
bility, to  beat  down  Satan  under  our  feet,  to  keep 
conscience  alert  and  keen  and  get  our  horizon 
widened  and  rolled  back,  and  meanwhile  to  leave 
what  lies  hopelessly  beyond  the  reaches  of  our 
souls  to  an  ampler  day. 

There  is    in    man    the   speculative    reason  and 


PAUL  ABOARD  117 

the  practical  reason.  The  one  is  critical  and 
prying,  seeks  out  final  causes  and  hidden  origins, 
and  gets  only  a  moderate  satisfaction  at  present. 
The  other  is  articulate,  peremptory,  positive,  and 
says  distinctly,  "  Except  these  abide  in  the  ship, 
ye  cannot  be  saved."  It  does  not  curiously 
inquire  how  prayer  affects  the  mind  of  God. 
It  says.  Ask,  seek,  knock.  It  does  not  inquire 
why  God  has  chosen  to  reveal  Himself  by  an 
incarnation,  and  by  the  cross  and  resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ?  It  simply  accepts  the  trans- 
cendent fact  and  acts  upon  it.  Take  Paul's 
practical  logic  into  your  life.  He  knew  two 
things, — one,  an  inflexible  certainty  that  could  not 
be  annulled ;  the  other,  a  plain,  practical  duty  that 
must  go  along  with  it  as  its  complement.  Nor 
did  the  two  clash.  Each  stood  firm  on  its  own 
proper  ground.  So,  too,  do  ye  be  assured  that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  mystery  of  God  or  in  the 
nature  of  things  to  excuse  from  conscious  duty. 
Duties  are  ours,  even  though  the  doctrines  and 
reasons  that  underHe  them  be  obscure  and  unin- 
telligible. 


VI 

THE  VALUE   OF  THE   SOUL 


VI 

THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL 

"  Brethren,  if  any  of  you  do  err  from  the  truth,  and  one  con- 
vert him ; 

"  Let  him  know,  that  he  which  converteth  the  sinner  from 
the  error  of  his  way,  shall  save  a  soul  from  death,  and  shall  hide  a 
multitude  of  sins." — James  v  :  19,  20. 

Two  men  named  James  are  mentioned  in  the 
New  Testament,  one  the  son  of  Zebedee  and 
brother  of  John,  beheaded  by  Herod  Agrippa,  a 
record  of  which  is  found  in  the  book  of  The  Acts. 
The  other,  also  one  of  the  original  twelve,  and 
surnamed  ''the  less,"  either  from  his  stature  or 
from  his  age,  is  called  by  Apostle  Paul,  the  Lord's 
brother.  His  language  is  :  "  After  three  years  I 
went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  see  Peter,  and  abode  with 
him  fifteen  days.  But  other  of  the  apostles  saw  I 
none,  save  James  the  Lord's  brother,"  a  kinsman 
of  some  degree.  It  was  probably  he  who  wrote 
this  practical  treatise  to  the  dispersed  Jewish 
Christians  living  outside  of  Palestine,  the  first  of 
the  seven  so-called  catholic  epistles,  because  ad- 
dressed to  no  particular  church,  but  to  the  whole 

121 


122  SEEING  DARKLY 

body  of  Christian  believers.  In  any  case  he  who 
thus  wrote  of  faith  and  works  to  the  scattered 
Christians  was  a  pillar  in  the  young  church.  Paul 
found  him  in  charge  at  Jerusalem  on  arriving 
there.  He  also  presided  over  the  first  church 
council  with  fine  wisdom  and  moderation,  and 
among  other  services  sent  forth  this  tract  upon 
the  practical  side  of  religion  to  the  various  Chris- 
tian societies  of  that  age.  The  tone  of  his  epistle 
is  not  distinctly  doctrinal ;  it  refers  rather  to  the 
visible  effects  of  religious  principle  in  the  dis- 
position and  life  of  men.  He  tells  his  readers 
what  they  must  do  and  not  so  much  what 
God  does  for  them.  He  lays  accent  upon  personal 
accountability  and  effort,  and  does  not  discuss 
at  length  the  theoretic  and  reasoned  parts  of 
religion. 

The  text  which  closes  his  epistle  furnishes  an 
admirable  sample  and  summation  of  his  method. 
Observe  there  is  no  reference  to  supernaturalism  or 
mystery.  He  does  not  mention  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
he  does  not  expound  the  new  birth ;  he  looks  at 
the  transaction  upon  the  human  side,  as  if  it  were 
a  service,  favor  or  accommodation  which  one 
could  grant  another,  to  convert  him.  Unquestion- 
ably there  is  a  permissible  sense  in  which  this  is 
true,  and  by  consulting  that  sense  or  acceptation 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  123 

James  shows  the  eminently  practical  cast  of  his 
mind. 

Consider  first  this  fact  which  the  Apostle  calls 
error  or  aberration  and  wandering  from  the 
truth.  It  may  be  of  two  kinds,  speculative  and 
doctrinal,  or  overt,  public,  and  notorious  in 
matters  of  conduct  and  decorum.  There  are  in- 
tellectual errors  and  there  are  open  faults  and 
sins,  and  the  one  does  not  necessarily  involve  the 
other.  This  is  a  sphere  where  there  are  wheels 
within  wheels.  Error  may  be  of  all  grades  and 
kinds,  from  that  which  eats  into  the  core  and  is 
critical  and  dangerous,  to  that  which  is  superficial 
and  comparatively  indifferent.  There  is  a  vast 
amount  of  error  in  the  world  that  is  practically 
harmless.  It  exists  in  relation  to  all  subject- 
matters.  It  cannot  be  otherwise  in  the  present 
state  of  man's  faculties.  More  than  this,  it  is  one 
of  the  proofs  of  God's  goodness  to  our  race  that 
the  consequences  of  necessary,  invincible  igno- 
rance are  not  always  visited  upon  us  in  a  painful 
way,  and  unless  this  be  important  in  order  to 
secure  and  protect  the  larger  interests  of  man- 
kind. 

Take  as  illustration  the  infancy  of  any  art  or 
science,  in  which  errors  must  abound.  Absurd 
theories   and   bungling   experiments   and    divers 


124  SEEING  DARKLY 

misconceptions  arise  before  the  true  idea  and 
shortest  cut  are  discovered.  Meanwhile  no  one 
is  seriously  damaged  or  delayed  by  his  ignorance 
and  awkwardness.  It  did  not  interfere  with  the 
happiness  of  mankind  before  Kepler  and  Coper- 
nicus to  believe  that  the  earth  was  a  flat  plane  and 
the  sky  glass  and  the  stars  spangles  and  the  anti- 
podes an  impossible  thought,  an  inconceivable 
thing.  Men  and  women  lived  happily  under  the 
reign  of  doctrines  in  geography  and  astronomy 
since  exploded.  So  likewise  in  every  branch 
of  knowledge.  At  first  man's  efforts  are  rude 
and  tentative,  wild  and  wide  of  the  mark,  but  as 
time  rolls  in  fresh  informations  this  and  that  is 
rejected  and  excluded  and  replaced  by  surer 
methods  and  truer  interpretations.  And  all  the 
while  that  men  are  guessing  and  blundering  and 
floundering  and  coming  to  port  gradually,  they 
are  ordinarily  spared  any  deplorable,  mischievous 
effects  of  invincible  ignorance.  They  must  err. 
It  is  the  state  of  man.  He  is  a  trier  of  conclu- 
sions, an  explorer,  an  experimenter,  a  moral 
navigator  over  misty  seas  into  unknown  lands. 
And  only  in  relation  to  matters  where  it  is  abso- 
lutely essential  that  he  be  right  at  once  and  from 
the  start  does  he  receive  sharp,  instant  notifica- 
tion  of  the   fact.     For   all    other   knowledge  he 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  125 

waits.  If  he  walk  on  live  coals  he  is  burnt  in- 
stantaneously and  without  mercy,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  if  the  whole  race  were  to  take  to  that 
occupation  it  would  be  annihilated.  If  he  pass 
the  hand  even  inadvertently  over  a  cutting  edge, 
it  draws  blood ;  if  he  take  poison  in  sufficient 
quantity,  he  dies.  It  is  necessary  for  the  sake  of 
the  species  that  swift,  sure  and  painful  conse- 
quences should  follow  directly  and  inexorably 
upon  certain  acts  and  omissions,  even  although 
they  be  done  in  ignorance  and  by  accident.  The 
universal  interests  of  man  demand  that  one  and 
another  here  and  there  shall  suffer  as  a  monu- 
mental example  lest  the  entire  race  perish 
through  rashness  and  imprudence.  Nature  is 
sometimes  a  Caiaphas  and  says  it  is  expedient 
that  one  man  should  die  for  the  people  and  that 
the  whole  nation  perish  not.  But  ruling  out  this 
class  of  exceptions,  God  allows  error — dense, 
opaque,  stupid,  slow-paced  error — to  take  pos- 
session of  the  human  mind  and  only  gradually 
to  settle  as  sediment  at  the  bottom.  Moreover, 
what  is  true  in  the  sphere  of  natural  knowledge 
is  also  true  in  respect  of  religious  doctrines  and 
ideas. 

Here,   too,   there    is   a   wide   margin    open   to 
innocent  and  venial  error  and  such  as  the  moral 


126  SEEING  DARKLY 

instinct  cannot  persuade  itself  to  be  highly  blame- 
worthy. Thus  men  may  differ  touching  certain 
speculative  positions  in  theology  without  incur- 
ring, so  far  as  is  revealed,  awful  peril  or  immed- 
icable hurt.  They  may  differ  as  to  the  apostolic 
constitution  of  the  church — was  it  prelacy  or  pres- 
bytery ?  Should  the  church  be  governed  by  bishops 
or  by  elders  ?  They  may  differ  as  to  the  philoso- 
phy and  range  of  the  atonement — was  it  designed 
equally  for  all  or  specifically  for  some,  and  how 
does  it  operate  to  pardon  human  sin?  They 
may  differ  in  regard  to  the  mode  in  which  man 
became  a  sinner — was  it  by  direct  imputation  of 
Adam's  sin  to  his  posterity  or  by  way  of  natural 
law  and  natural  consequence  ?  They  may  differ 
as  to  the  interpretation  of  i  Peter  3  :  19,  and  as 
to  what  really  happened  during  the  interim 
between  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus. 
Did  he  actually  preach  to  spirits  in  hades,  the 
dead  of  the  pre-Christian  ages  ?  Did  he  publish 
the  gospel  of  redemption  through  the  dark  and 
spectral  kingdom  of  departed  spirits  and  carry 
salvation  to  imprisoned  souls  ?  So,  too,  in  regard 
to  the  whole  question  of  restitution — shall  all 
souls  be  ultimately  restored,  or  shall  some  prove 
incurable  and  incorrigible,  and  perish  ?  Just  as  in 
the  previous  case  of  natural   knowledge,  so  here 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  127 

there  must  be  error,  taking  man  as  he  is,  with 
his  limitations,  his  ignorance  and  prejudice. 

Probably  James  did  not  contemplate  intellectual 
or  theoretic  opinion  or  doctrinal  heresy  at  all  in 
urging  the  conversion  of  sinners.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  doctrine  lies  at  the  base  of  practice,  in 
a  general  way,  and  yet  one  may  hold  error  upon 
a  speculative  point,  where  the  light  of  heaven 
does  not  shine  full  and  clear  and  where  much 
remains  to  be  said  upon  both  sides,  without  in- 
volving any  serious  defection  in  the  region  of 
conduct,  without  lowering  the  moral  tone,  or 
implying  any  desperate  hostility  to  God  and  good- 
ness. It  is  rather  at  the  critical  point  where  loose 
and  corrupt  doctrine  empties,  debouches  into 
corresponding  evil  practice,  that  the  text  grapples. 
Where  any  one's  doctrinal  fallacy  finds  its  way 
into  the  sphere  of  action  and  habitually  taints  and 
poisons  that,  then  in  an  eminent  sense  he  becomes 
a  sinner.  Or  apart  from  this  and  without  any 
doctrinal  theology,  one  may  sin,  one  may  err  from 
the  truth,  carried  along  by  the  force  of  undisci- 
plined passions ;  or  again  one  may  hold  sound 
opinions  without  the  moral  will  to  give  them 
systematic  effect,  so  that  in  practice  his  conduct 
discredits  his  ossified  orthodoxy.  This  is  by  no 
means  uncommon. 


128  SEEING  DARKLY 

The  picture  in  the  text  is  presumably  that  of  a 
person  who  from  any  cause  has  wandered  from 
the  path  of  order  and  rectitude  and  from  the  ideal 
of  the  gospel.  Because  there  is  a  definite  style 
of  life,  a  set  or  ply  of  the  disposition,  a  certain 
view-point,  a  general  spirit  and  broad  drift  charac- 
teristic of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  is  per- 
fectly distinct  and  unmistakable,  so  that  it  is  not  dif- 
ficult to  see  or  to  say  whether  one  errs  from  it.  It 
is  not  so  much  a  question  of  intellectual  heresy 
that  is  here  mooted,  or  some  high  theme  of  meta- 
physical theology  which  men  have  not  sufficient 
data  to  settle  dogmatically  yet  awhile,  but  the 
picture  is  that  of  one  who  knows  more  of  the 
truth  than  he  tries  to  do,  who  goes  astray  from  it, 
who  leads  a  poor,  mean,  shambling,  guilty  life  and 
is  in  danger  of  making  shipwreck  of  himself  and 
of  being  swamped  and  stranded,  from  whatever 
cause,  and  the  apostle  James  says,  if  you  can  help 
such,  can  influence  him,  can  draw  him  out  of  the 
vortex  and  whirlpool,  it  may  be  the  saving  of  a 
soul  from  death. 

Consider  further  that  the  text  credits  men 
with  the  singular  power  of  converting  others. 
This  is  not  the  usual  way  of  conceiving  the 
matter.  The  general  impression,  supported  by 
biblical  sanction,  is  that  the   soul  of  man   must 


THE  VALUi:  OF  THE  SOUL  129 

be  turned  and  tuned  and  made  responsive  and 
melodious  under  the  touch  of  almighty  power ; 
the  hearts  of  men  are  in  the  hands  of  God.  Of 
course,  this  is  the  final  fact  about  it  and  the 
last  analysis  of  the  matter,  but  meanwhile  divine 
and  human  agency  are  often  interactive,  so  that 
the  inception  of  religion  in  the  soul  may  not  infre- 
quently be  traced  to  some  action,  word,  incident 
or  circumstance  lying  open  to  view.  Now  James 
with  his  genius  for  the  palpable  and  practical  lays 
hold  of  the  proximate  cause,  the  occasional  cause 
which  may  originate  a  Christian  experience  and 
lifts  that  into  prominence.  Hence  he  speaks  of 
converting  sinners  as  though  it  were  a  perfectly 
feasible  thing.  He  looks  upon  the  phenomenon 
from  the  lower,  natural  side  of  secondary  causes, 
and  in  that  view  his  phrase  is  undoubtedly  justi- 
fiable. It  is  certainly  true  that  one  may  be  the 
instrument  by  whom  the  whole  spirit  and  total 
tendency  of  a  fellow-being  shall  be  reversed  and 
revolutionized ;  this  is  a  splendid  possibility.  You 
may  convert  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way. 
The  Spirit  of  God  may  take  a  man  into  temporary 
partnership  with  Himself  and  allow  him  to  co- 
operate in  an  effectual  manner  and  toward  per- 
manent and  blessed  results.  There  is  such  a  power 
as  personal  influence — a  dark,  secret,  inscrutable 
9 


I30  SEEING  DARKLY 

thing.  How,  when,  or  where  it  may  operate 
or  whom  it  may  affect  is  not  matter  for  prediction. 
Only  this  is  known,  that  there  is  power  lodged  in 
sincerity,  in  moral  courage,  in  moral  convictions, 
in  personal  example,  in  persuasion.  One  needs  to 
handle  these  things  skillfully,  for  they  are  delicate, 
keen-edged  tools,  and  one  requires  fine  wisdom 
and  manifest  sincerity  to  wield  them  ;  but  there  can 
be  no  question  that  many  a  human  being  has 
been  deeply  and  permanently  influenced  by  the 
spirit,  example,  companionship,  and  by  the  word 
in  season  of  some  one  who  lived  for  finer  issues 
and  on  a  higher  plane.  No  one  knows  when  he 
does  incalculable  good  or  harm.  This  is  a  great 
mystery.  Out  of  some  little  act  or  omission  im- 
measurable consequences  may  proceed.  Your 
high  courage,  your  unselfishness,  at  a  critical 
moment  may  fling  a  splendid  energy  into  others. 
Your  word  of  interest  or  remonstrance  with  a 
blotched,  ulcerated  bondslave  of  evil  habit  may 
win  him  to  decency  and  honor.  Your  silent  and 
steady  example  may  operate  powerfully  upon  those 
who  witness  it.  Your  mere  inquiry  of  one  whether 
he  be  an  attendant  upon  church  service  may  bring 
him  into  wholesome  and  helpful  surroundings.  A 
judiciously  phrased  opinion  concerning  the  inevi- 
table tendency  of  a  person's  course  may  turn  him 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  131 

from  the  rocks  upon  which  his  craft  is  heading^ 
and  where  he  will  shortly  strike  and  go  down. 
You  may  speak  a  timely  word  that  shall  put  one 
upon  thinking  about  his  case  and  which  shall 
issue  in  the  passing  away  of  old  things  and  the 
incoming  of  a  new  dynasty  of  motives  and  prin- 
ciples. 

True,  it  is  quite  possible  to  cast  one's  pearls  be- 
fore swine.  An  earnest,  sincere  soul  may  do  harm 
by  intemperate  and  indiscreet  action.  Nothing  can 
take  the  place  of  common  sense,  tact,  judgment, 
a  knowledge  of  men,  times,  seasons  and  proprieties. 
But  with  this  keen  instinct  one  may  do  good — may 
impart  a  true  impulse,  may  plant  a  counsel  or 
suggestion  that  shall  swell,  germinate,  fructify 
like  a  seed — "  a  handful  of  corn  may  wave  like 
Lebanon."  Verily  a  great  practical  truth  is  this  of 
St.  James',  that  a  man  may  co-operate  with  God, 
and  that  not  necessarily  with  bluster  and  flourish 
of  trumpets,  hunting  for  a  choice  spot  to  set  his 
lever,  seeking  for  a  large,  conspicuous  place  as  the 
seat  of  his  operations,  and  whence  he  can  make 
elaborate  attempts,  but  simply  by  the  wise  use  of 
casual,  unexpected,  wayside  opportunities,  we  may 
be  coworkers  with  God.  No  one  can  say  when 
he  shall  strike  his  sturdiest  strokes.  No  one 
can  say  what  God  may  wing   like  an  arrow  to 


132  SEEING  DARKLY 

its  mark  and  what  shall  fall  short  and  flat.  The 
main  point  is  sincerity,  earnestness.  Do  not  vex 
your  soul  about  results.  Do  not  draw  up  pro- 
grammes; seize  and  use  the  opportunity  as  it 
comes. 

Another  remark  opened  by  the  text  amounts  to 
this,  that  the  work  of  moral  influence  is  far  grander 
than  we  suspect.  Whoever  succeeds  on  this  high 
field  saves  a  soul  from  death.  Here  is  a  powerful 
argument,  yet  one  we  cannot  properly  appraise. 
For  what  is  the  soul  ?  Is  the  soul  of  man  matter 
raised  to  its  highest  power  and  destined  to  relapse 
again  into  dust  ?  Or  is  it  a  unique,  supernatural 
somewhat,  an  immortal  property  or  entity,  sojourn- 
ing here  for  a  season  and  hence  emigrating  into 
other  latitudes  to  clothe  itself  afresh  with  an 
organism  better  suited  to  the  new  climate  and 
surroundings?  We  cannot  define  the  human 
spirit.  We  only  know  it  is  that  within  each  one 
which  authorizes  him  to  say  I.  Man  alone  can  say 
I.  He  has  self-consciousness,  personal  identity, 
the  faculty  of  comparison  and  inference,  conscience 
and  a  rational  will.  He  can  say  I,  I  will,  I 
choose,  I  think,  I  am.  This  is  his  strange  prerog- 
ative. Brutes  cannot  rise  above  the  course  of 
nature,  but  man  can  ;  he  can  take  possession  of 
nature  and  utilize  it.     Planted  in  nature,  so  far  as 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  133 

concerns  the  body,  by  the  force  of  intelligence, 
self-determination  and  rational  motives  he  may 
rise  above  the  nature- realm  of  physics  and  direct 
and  control  it  in  his  own  interest  and  for  his  own 
ends. 

This  spiritual  energy,  this  outfit  of  mental  and 
moral  faculty,  this  principle  of  eternity  is  the  in- 
breathing of  the  Almighty,  and  is  compendiously 
called  the  soul.     It   is  a  depth  that  no  lead  and 
line  has  yet  sounded.     Men  have  sounded  the  sea 
and  measured  the  velocity  of  light  and  the  diame- 
ter of  the  earth ;  they  can  calculate  the  orbit  of 
comets  and  weigh  the  stars ;  but  they  have   not 
guessed  the  secret  of  man's  soul.     They  think  its 
shekinah  or  center  somewhere  in   the  brain  and 
nervous  system,  but  they  have  not  found  it  yet. 
It  eludes  all  research.  There  is  a  gulf  between  the 
brain  and  the  thinker,  across  which  no  bridge  has 
been  flung  so  that  one  may  cross  from  the  one  to 
the  other.    The   physics  of  thought  is  inscrutable. 
We  only  know  certain  of  the   goings  forth,  exer- 
cises and  attributes  of  the  soul.    It  is  a  sort  of  bird 
of  paradise,  of  splendid  plumage,  but  caged,  wired 
and   barred    by   mortality,  and    that  throbs    and 
flutters  and  hopes  and  wonders  and  rejoices.    The 
Bible  does  not  define  the  human  soul.     It  simply 
looks  upon  man  as  a  creature  capable  of  a  career. 


134  SEEING  DARKLY 

It  looks  upon  human  possibility  as  a  wondrous 
seed  that  has  life  in  itself,  a  thing  of  tremendous 
vitality,  a  rough,  incrusted  diamond,  that  may  be 
cleansed  and  polished  and  set  to  flash  forever  in 
the  heavens.  It  looks  upon  the  imperial  endow- 
ments of  man,  his  insatiable  cravings  and  un- 
quenchable aspirations  and  all  that  is  as  yet 
potential  and  small,  as  capable  of  fulfillment,  of 
larger  life,  as  being  shackled  now,  but  one  day  to 
be  enfranchised  and  let  soar  and  roam. 

The  Christian  religion  deals  in  grand  ideas ; 
too  grand  for  our  present  limitations.  Tourists 
who  climb  to  the  summits  of  the  Alps,  toiling 
through  the  thin  air,  sometimes  sink  on  the 
snow  and  stare  in  silence  at  the  white  peaks 
and  domes  and  the  sea  of  clouds  stretching  to 
the  horizon.  And  is  there  no  majesty  in  the 
gospel,  too, — no  Mont  Blanc,  no  Matterhorn,  no 
Monte  Rosa,  no  long  ranges,  no  lofty  summits, 
no  shining  pinnacles  ?  Can  you  take  in  these 
Christian  ideas,  any  better  than  the  stately  pano- 
ramas of  the  natural  world  ?  Can  you  define  the 
soul  and  immortality  ?  Can  you  tell  what  it 
means  to  save  a  soul  from  death  ?  What  is  the 
death  of  the  soul  ?  Is  it  extinction,  the  suspen- 
sion of  consciousness  and  all  mental  activity,  the 
going-out  of  conscious  life  as  a  candle  flickers  and 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  135 

dies  in  the  socket  ?  Is  it  a  perpetual  swoon  and 
torpor  of  the  faculties  ?  Or  is  it  an  ever-during 
life  at  a  low  pulse,  in  a  morally  debilitated  and 
corrupt  condition,  in  a  dark,  indurated,  obstinate, 
incurable  opposition  to  God  and  goodness  ?  What 
is  the  death  of  a  soul  ?  Who  shall  expound  such 
a  mystery  ?  Who  can  venture  upon  more  than 
his  own  private  interpretation  ?  Who  knows 
enough  to  affirm  dogmatically  concerning  such 
a  catastrophe  ?  Verily  one  would  need  to  take 
the  wings  of  the  morning  and  fly  through  eter- 
nity in  search  of  materials  to  elucidate  so  dark  a 
theme  as  this. 

Even  an  inspired  apostle  does  not  define  or 
describe  or  dilate  ;  he  simply  throws  out  the  idea 
as  a  vivid,  lurid  reality — a  dead  soul !  A  lost 
soul  !  Without  expounding,  he  simply  leaves 
it  floating  before  the  imagination  a  vague,  name- 
less horror.  And  probably  in  this  he  sets  a  wise 
example.  It  is  sufficient  for  us  to  know  that  a  man 
may  lose  his  career,  his  destiny,  and  fail  of  his 
chief  end  ;  the  subject  does  not  call  for  minute 
particulars.  That  the  human  spirit  may  fail  of 
achieving  its  true  purpose  and  fall  short  of  the 
mark ;  that  the  powers  of  mind  and  affection  and 
all  that  fits  it  to  expatiate  in  the  upper  firmament 
of  God's  love  and  to  discover  the  secrets  of  the 


136  SEEING  DARKLY 

universe,  and  to  enter  upon  the  companionships 
of  an  immortal  world,  may  be  balked  and  frus- 
trated and  fall  down  into  a  deep  of  darkness  and 
confusion,  and  become  a  byword  and  a  hissing,  a 
thing  of  shame  and  contempt — surely  this  is  bad 
enough.  There  is  no  need  to  pile  up  a  massive, 
apocalyptic  imagery  to  describe  so  dismal  a  catas- 
trophe as  the  death  of  a  soul.  Just  let  it  stand 
as  James  states  it ;  that  will  do,  that  is  enough.  To 
attempt  more  we  should  have  to  draw  upon  our 
imagination,  in  default  of  facts  and  of  actual 
knowledge,  whereas  the  Bible  simply  authorizes 
this  solemn  truth,  that  a  soul  may  utterly,  igno- 
miniously  fail  of  its  supreme  end  and  proper  des- 
tiny, and  become  a  wrecked  and  ruined  creature. 

Surely  the  ideas  connected  with  religion  trans- 
cend all  others  in  mysteriousness  and  sublim- 
ity. You  may  say  you  do  not  believe  them,  but 
that  is  a  separate  matter.  Here  they  are,  clear- 
cut,  definite,  intelligible,  coherent.  The  throne 
of  God,  the  soul  of  man,  a  life  that  never  dies, 
moral  ruin,  an  eternal  progress  in  the  elements  of 
knowledge,  holiness,  power,  joy,  the  necessity  of 
divine  approbation  and  of  divine  help — these  are 
a  few  of  the  items  that  make  up  religion,  and 
where  will  you  match  them  for  magnitude  and 
grandeur  ?      They    dwarf    all    secular    interests. 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  137 

Moreover,  this  is  the  strength  of  the  apostle's 
argument,  that  one  should  exert  whatever  moral 
influence  he  possesses  on  behalf  of  men,  inas- 
much as  it  is  possible  he  may  save  a  soul  from 
death;  he  may  set  some  stumbling,  shambling 
foot  on  a  path  that  shall  wax  wider  and  brighter 
until  it  lose  itself  in  an  eternal  day.  Is  this  not 
a  great  work  ?  Think  of  it.  One  prodigal  re- 
claimed, one  frivolous,  reckless  creature  arrested 
and  impressed  and  made  to  feel  that  it  is  not  the 
whole  of  life  to  live.  Is  this  not  the  highest  style 
of  success — to  save  a  soul  from  death  ;  to  meet 
again  even  one  amid  the  countless  nations  of  the 
saved,  who  shall  rise  up  to  call  you  blessed;  who 
shall  say,  "You  led  me  to  eternal  life"  ?  Would  that 
not  be  an  immense,  unspeakable  thing  to  befall 
you  or  me  ?  Can  you  conceive  of  a  greater  ova- 
tion ?  Hence  I  emphasize  the  power  of  moral 
influence  as  the  most  remunerative  power  we  have. 
After  all,  the  best  service  you  can  render  any 
one  is  not  to  make  him  rich  or  famous  or  even 
learned,  but  to  instruct  and  stimulate  his  rational 
and  religious  nature.  For  this,  if  at  all  he  is  to 
be  saved — this  is  the  salvable  part  of  him  ;  the 
rest  is  comparative  rubbish.  So  that  if  they  who 
come  into  contact  with  you  somehow  receive  the 
impression  that  you  believe  in   God,  in  duty,  in 


138  SEEING  DARKLY 

redemption,  in  purity,  in  prayer,  in  moral  ac- 
countability, in  judgment  to  come — if  these  ideas 
shine  through  your  life  and  make  themselves 
felt,  no  one  may  calculate,  arithmetic  has  no 
logarithms  to  compute,  the  possible  results  of 
such  an  influence.  It  is  tidal.  It  may  heave  and 
break  upon  a  hundred  shores.  It  may  bless  souls 
who  know  nothing  of  its  origin  and  impulse. 
People  are  apt  to  belittle  this  mystery  of  moral 
influence ;  nevertheless  it  is  one  of  the  grand, 
silent,  effectual  forces  that  bear  upon  the  educa- 
tion of  the  human  spirit. 

If  you  have  accomplished  no  more  than  win- 
ning a  profane  swearer  from  his  oaths  or  a 
drunkard  from  his  wine-cups;  if  you  have  mellowed 
the  prejudices  of  a  strong,  implacable  hater  or 
refined  a  coarse,  sensual,  sullen  nature ;  if  you  have 
made  any  slight  impression  upon  a  strongly 
intrenched  vice  or  mean  disposition  ;  if  by  the 
subtle  contagion  of  your  better  example,  or  by  a 
golden  word  at  a  fit  time,  any  one  to  whom  you 
have  access  has  had  the  eyes  of  the  mind  opened 
and  been  beckoned  forward  to  higher  thinking  and 
nobler  living,  such  an  exploit  takes  rank  with  the 
capture  of  a  city  or  the  discovery  of  a  continent. 
Columbus  really  did  not  do  any  greater  deed  than 
that,  measured  by  the  standards  that  prevail  in  the 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  139 

kingdom  of  the  heavens.  And  while  selfish  and 
sensual  men  may  imagine  that  praying  and  preach- 
ing is  a  small  business,  Christianity  makes  it  the 
chief  part  of  its  errand  to  affirm  that  such  attempts 
upon  man's  spiritual  nature  are  infinitely  more 
significant  than  the  din  of  the  street  and  the  agita- 
tions of  the  caucus  and  the  noisy  clatter  of  this 
mechanical  world,  and  that  if  it  were  not  for  man's 
religious  potentialities  his  capacity  to  know  and 
enjoy  God  and  to  come  into  practical  sympathy 
with  Him,  it  would  not  have  been  worth  while  to 
carpet  a  globe  like  this,  arrange  its  sceneries,  and 
hang  its  starlights,  and  marshall  its  epochs,  and 
ordain  its  seasons,  and  kindle  sun  and  moon  to 
give  it  light,  and  bid  its  centuries  file  past  crowded 
with  wars,  migrations,  tumults,  civilizations,  creeds 
and  a  ceaseless  flux  of  changes,  simply  to  afford  a 
soulless  monkey  a  chance  to  play  his  fantastic 
tricks. 

Hence  it  follows  that  whatsoever  bears  upon 
man's  moral  life  is  highly  significant.  Any  im- 
pulse or  motive  drawn  from  a  supernal  sphere 
and  applicable  to  human  condition  is  always  in 
order.  If  the  Christian  ideal  be  not  true,  it  does 
not  much  matter  how  we  live  or  what  becomes  of 
us;  but  if  Jesus  Christ  be  indeed  the  bearer  of  an 
authentic  message  from  the  unseen  to  our  mortal 


140  SEEING  DARKLY 

race,  then  it  follows  that  man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone,  by  his  animal  nature,  by  his  worldly 
ambitions,  by  pride,  by  selfishness,  by  sensations, 
but  that  the  imperial  endowment  about  him  is  the 
spiritual  life,  the  moral  sentiment  and  presenti- 
ment, and  his  inborn  affinity  with  an  order  of  facts 
and  realities  that  lie  beyond  sense,  which  he  can- 
not strictly  verify,  but  of  which  he  feels  the  pull 
and  has  a  divination.  If  you  can  do  anything  to 
vivify  this ;  if  you  can  fan  this  spark  and  make  it 
flame;  if  you  can  deepen  this  suspicion;  if  you  can 
cause  any  one  to  feel  that  he  is  a  son  of  God, 
although  a  prodigal  son,  that  he  is  a  crown  prince 
in  tatters,  that  he  is  a  child  at  school,  far  from  his 
father's  house,  getting  his  tuition ;  if  you  can 
cause  any  one  to  live  under  the  dominion  of  such 
great  convictions,  this  will  be  the  finest  stroke 
you  can  do. 

You  need  not  envy  Alexander  or  Napoleon, 
You  need  not  care  to  sit  down  with  kings  under 
canopies  and  diadems — it  will  be  enough  to  save  a 
soul  from  death.  But  mark  this  caveat, — in  order 
to  do  that,  it  is  important  that  one  feel  the  power 
of  the  truth  he  commends  to  others.  It  should 
command  the  homage  of  his  own  nature.  Paul 
seems  to  teach  that  God  may  use  a  man  for  what 
he  is  worth,  without  his  being  worth    much   after 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  SOUL  141 

all.  "  My  converts,"  he  says,  "  may  enter  into  life, 
while  I  may  be  a  castaway."  You  can  be  useful, 
in  a  way,  without  deep  convictions.  Strange  to 
say,  one  may  be  the  instrument  of  the  moral 
recovery  of  another  without  thereby  certifying  to 
his  own  sincerity  or  genuineness.  Let  us  look 
well  to  ourselves.  Let  us  light  a  candle  and 
search  ourselves.  Every  one  of  us  must  give 
account  of  himself  unto  God. 


VII 

A  THANKSGIVING   SERMON 


VII 

A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON 

"  And  Jesus  answering  said,  Were  there  not  ten  cleansed?  but 
where  are  the  nine  ? 

"  There  are  not  found  that  returned  to  give  glory  to  God,  save 
this  stranger." — LuKE  xvii :   17,  18. 

Leprosy  is  described  as  a  cutaneous  disease, 
beginning  with  crusts  and  scabs  upon  the  skin, 
thence  extending  to  the  tissues  and  joints,  until 
the  frame  falls  to  pieces  by  a  wasting  gangrene. 
It  was  not  an  uncommon  disorder  in  the  East  in 
the  time  of  Christ  and  always.  One  afflicted  by 
this  loathsome  disease  was  unfitted  for  social  inter- 
course, both  on  account  of  the  hideous  disfigure- 
ments, the  seams,  cracks,  and  ulcers  it  wrought, 
and  also  by  reason  of  its  infectious  character.  It 
is,  therefore,  a  significant  statement  that  these  men 
"stood  afar  off";  this  is  a  stroke  of  truth  and 
nature,  and  precisely  what  lepers  would  do.  They 
did  not  intrude  into  the  presence  of  others  with- 
out due  notice ;  they  knew  they  were  a  shunned 
and  isolated  class  and  regarded  with  both  pity  and 

disgust. 

10  145 


146  SEEING  DARKLY 

In  keeping  with  the  general  principle,  or  to 
illustrate  the  proverb  that  misery  loves  company, 
and  to  indemnify  themselves  possibly  for  the  social 
ostracism  and  loneliness  incident  to  their  condition, 
ten  of  these  unfortunate  persons,  according  to 
Mark's  narrative,  had  found  each  other  and  made 
common  cause  and  common  stock.  They  trav- 
ersed the  country,  passing  from  village  to  village 
and  picking  up  any  windfall  of  good  fortune  that 
might  betide.  And  one  day  they  fell  in  with 
Jesus,  the  prophet  of  Galilee,  in  one  of  His  mis- 
sionary tours.  By  some  sign  or  rumor  they  rec- 
ognized Him  as  the  man  who  had  been  eminently 
successful  in  the  treatment  of  divers  diseases,  and 
invoked  His  benevolent  interference  on  their  behalf, 
careful,  however,  to  measure  their  distance  and  not 
to  approach  nearer  than  custom  and  propriety 
would  allow. 

**  Master,  have  mercy  on  us,"  they  cried  eager- 
ly, with  hearty  accord.  Whereupon  Jesus  signi- 
fied that  He  did  not  propose  any  abrupt  break 
with  Judaism,  by  His  direction,  "  Go  show  your- 
selves to  the  priest."  This  was  a  provision  of  the 
Levitical  law,  that  a  cleansed  leper  must  be  in- 
spected and  passed  by  a  priest  before  he  could 
return  to  citizenship  or  participate  in  the  religious 
worship  and  solemnities  of  the  church.     He  must 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON  147 

receive  a  clean  bill  of  health  from  the  proper  offi- 
cial— the  Jewish  priest. 

In  compliance  with  this  ancient  and  prescriptive 
usage  Jesus  said  to  these  men,  "  Go,  show  your- 
selves to  the  priest."  This  was  equivalent  to 
an  assurance  that  they  would  find  themselves 
cleansed  by  the  time  they  reached  him.  Other- 
wise he  could  do  nothing  for  them ;  he  could  not 
sprinkle  them  with  the  bunch  of  cedar,  scarlet  and 
hyssop,  nor  pontificate  on  their  behalf  according 
to  the  ritual  provided  for  such  occasions.  They 
must  be  clean  before  he  could  certify  the  fact. 
And  so  the  affair  actually  eventuated ;  ''  as  they 
went,  they  were  cleansed." 

Then  one  of  them,  conscious  of  the  change  that 
had  passed  upon  him  and  full  of  gratitude  to 
his  Healer,  retraced  his  steps  to  make  public 
recognition  of  the  wonderful  and  rapid  cure,  and 
finding  his  Benefactor  fell  down  at  His  feet  with 
fervent  thanksgiving.  Seeing  him,  Jesus  recol- 
lected that  there  were  ten  in  the  same  bad  plight, 
and  directly  broke  out  in  the  plaintive  appeal, 
"  Where  are  the  nine?  Were  there  none  found  that 
returned  to  give  glory  to  God,  save  this  alien  ?  " 
For  he  was  a  Samaritan. 

The  teaching  of  the  incident  lies  on  the  surface. 
It  means  that  man  is  prone  to  forget  his  benefits 


148  SEEING  DARKLY 

and  mercies,  and  lays  more  stress  upon  what  he 
has  not  than  upon  what  he  has.  It  is  our  human 
tendency  to  take  our  blessings  for  granted  and  as 
a  matter  of  course.  Man  seems  to  look  upon  all 
good  things,  pleasurable  sensations,  comforts,  even 
luxuries,  as  his  birthright,  upon  which  he  has  a 
natural  inalienable  claim,  giving  him  just  ground 
for  complaint  if  he  does  not  receive  them.  A 
stroke  of  good  fortune,  an  agreeable  surprise,  any 
desiderattnn,  creates  only  a  transient  ripple  and 
leaves  but  a  dim  impression ;  instead  of  being 
thankful  for  it  as  a  sheer  gratuity,  an  extra  divi- 
dend, the  individual  only  finds  in  it  a  reason  why 
he  should  receive  more  of  the  same  kind  and 
oftener. 

This  is  one  of  the  standing  objections  and 
discouragements  -to  almsgiving.  You  give  a 
dole — a  coin  of  money — to  some  broken,  ragged 
applicant,  to  tide  him  over  a  crisis,  and  before  many 
days  he  returns  upon  you  again;  should  you 
decline,  alleging  that  you  have  done  all  for  him 
that  you  intend  to  do,  all  that  goes  for  nothing. 
You  must  keep  on  giving  if  you  expect  the  well- 
spring  of  his  gratitude  to  keep  on  gushing.  Or  it 
may  be  you  are  in  a  position  to  grant  promotion 
or  a  larger  wage  to  some  one ;  you  decide  to  do 
so ;  he  gets  the  advancement  and  its  accompanying 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON 


149 


perquisites ;  after  a  while  a  place  still  higher  up 
falls  vacant.  He  then  wants  that,  but  for  sufficient 
reasons  you  pass  him  by  and  fill  the  vacancy  with 
another  candidate.  Again  your  former  benefit  is 
forgotten,  falls  dead,  does  not  count,  is  water 
spilled  on  the  ground.  Human  nature  is  so  con- 
stituted for  the  most  part  that  if  once  you  begin, 
you  must  continue  to  help  it,  else  the  stream  of 
thanksgiving  will  run  scant  and  shallow,  and  finally 
stagnate  and  dry  up  altogether.  Gratitude  is  a 
rare  exotic ;  small  and  narrow  souls  are  not  equal 
to  the  effort.  If  we  philosophize  upon  the  fact,  it 
is  owing,  of  course,  to  that  radical  trait  of  our 
nature,  selfishness.  Man  is  a  colossal  egoist ;  self- 
ishness is  the  base  of  him.  He  imagines  that 
nothing  is  too  good  for  him  ;  that  he  has  a  natural 
right  to  everything  worth  having ;  that  he  receives 
no  more  than  he  deserves ;  and  that  he  is  often 
unfairly  dealt  with  by  the  overruling  Providence. 
This  is  a  general  impression.  Men  feel  that  they 
have  a  natural  claim  upon  God,  that  He  shall 
make  them  happy  and  contented,  and  failing  this, 
they  are  prone  to  grumble,  to  impeach  the  divine 
moral  government,  and  to  become  critical  and  even 
resentful. 

This  attitude,  if  we  may  analyze  it,  undoubtedly 
results  from  the  instinct  of  self-esteem  and  self- 


I50  SEEING  DARKLY 

aggrandizement,  which  is  a  fundamental  note  of 
our  nature.  Men  do  not  generally  ask  What  war- 
rant had  I  to  expect  this  good,  this  gift,  this 
largess  ?  what  virtue  or  quality  in  me  estab- 
lishes a  perpetual  claim  upon  it  ?  what  reason  had 
I  to  suppose  that  it  would  last  ?  This  question 
does  not  occur  to  the  average  man ;  he  takes  it 
for  granted,  with  the  air  and  mien  of  one  who 
has  been  rifled  of  his  rights  and  goods,  if  any 
curtailment  or  shrinkage  takes  place. 

For  substance  it  is  the  story  of  Jesus  and  the 
lepers.  Nine  of  them,  as  the  effect  of  his  order, 
found  themselves  suddenly  white  and  clean,  and 
they  thought  no  more  about  it.  They  went  each 
about  his  business ;  they  took  it  as  a  matter  of 
course.  What  use  in  a  recovered  leper  thanking 
God  when  he  had  only  come  by  his  own  and  re- 
turned to  his  normal  state  of  health,  and  when 
lepers  were  the  exception  ?  Why  should  he  not 
have  a  clean  skin  instead  of  a  scabbed  one  ?  Who 
had  a  better  right  than  he  to  sit  at  table,  to  join  in 
its  pleasures  and  convivialities,  to  frequent  syna- 
gogue and  temple,  and  to  enjoy  life?  Could  any 
good  reason  be  assigned  why  a  leper  should  be 
cooped  up  and  debarred  entrance,  among  his 
fellows,  and  not  stand  upon  equal  terms  with 
other  people  ?     The  nine  seem  to  have  reasoned 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON  151 

in  this  manner — all  except  the  Samaritan.  More- 
over, it  is  genuine  human  reasoning,  precisely  the 
same  which  most  men  indulge  in.  It  was  the 
opinion  of  nine  lepers  out  of  ten,  and  it  is  the 
opinion  of  nine  tenths  of  humanity  still,  that  they 
have  a  clear  and  perfect  title  to  all  the  natural 
good  that  comes  along.  Let  the  Supreme  Provi- 
dence take  a  human  being  and  set  him  down  in 
the  midst  of  dishes,  lounges,  perfumes,  conserva- 
tories, equipages,  large  dividends,  a  paradise  of 
splendor  and  profusion,  and  then  begin  to  cancel 
this  and  that,  to  cut  off  this  superfluity  and  that 
supply,  and  wipe  out  another  asset,  and  he  or  she 
will  be  a  very  remarkable  and  rare  person  who 
does  not  frown  and  complain,  but  maintains  a  cheer- 
ful mood,  even  although  not  seriously  disabled. 
True,  his  roses  did  not  bloom  so  luxuriantly,  and 
he  was  disappointed  in  his  pear  trees  ;  he  had  like 
to  have  lost  his  hothouse  by  fire  on  a  cold  night 
during  the  winter ;  and  his  fast  and  favorite  horse 
fell  lame  ;  a  few  minor  misfortunes  befell  which 
did  not  really  infringe  the  substance  of  his  prop- 
erty, yet  he  imagines  they  have  seriously  under- 
mined his  grounds  for  thanksgiving.  The  truth 
is,  the  individual  has  accustomed  himself  to  a  fixed 
scale  of  living  and  to  certain  fixed,  unalterable 
conditions   which   have  become    essential  to  his 


152  SEEING  DARKLY 

happiness,  and  the  consequence  is  that  any  hmi- 
tation  or  restriction,  even  in  the  matter  of  some 
artificial  and  superfluous  want,  cannot  be  enter- 
tained with  composure  and  is  regarded  as  a  griev- 
ance. 

I  suppose  the  truth  Hes  about  here  :  that  man 
living  on  the  earth  has  good  reason  to  expect 
food,  raiment,  shelter,  the  necessaries  of  life.  It  is 
fair  to  suppose  that  the  benevolent  Power  who 
brought  him  here  would  not  leave  him  unprovided 
with  the  essential  things;  but  beyond  this,  it 
would  be  hard  to  show  that  any  creature  has  an 
indisputable  claim  upon  the  Creator  for  super- 
fluities. Is  God  unkind  to  Eskimos  and  Hot- 
tentots, herding  together  in  soot  and  squalor,  in 
skins  and  feathers  ?  No  ;  their  lives  are  doubtless 
contented  and  happy;  their  environment  matches 
their  tastes  and  state  of  culture.  The  fact  that 
God  has  disclosed  higher  purpose  in  relation  to 
some  than  to  others  does  not  impugn  the  divine 
benevolence,  if  all  have  what  is  suited  to  their 
capacity  and  need.  This  general  tendency  to  take 
our  good  things,  our  extras,  for  granted,  is  the  fea- 
ture rebuked  by  Christ  in  His  query,  "Where  are 
the  nine  ?"  What  cause  could  even  those  un- 
happy lepers  show  why  they  ought  certainly  to 
be   healed   under   the   government  of  a   merciful 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON  153 

Creator  ?  Is  it  not  plain  that  had  any  such  argu- 
ment existed  Christ  would  not  have  expressed  sur- 
prise at  their  ingratitude  ?  One  is  not  expected 
to  be  profusely  thankful  for  what  he  has  a  clear 
right  to  have  and  to  hold.  Evidently  the  whole 
matter  of  thanksgiving  is  settled  upon  its  true 
basis  by  this  remark  of  Jesus  to  the  grateful 
Samaritan.  So  that  if  any  one  is  disposed  to  say 
he  has  nothing  to  thank  God  for,  then  thank 
God  that  you  are  not  a  leper — a  blistered,  dis- 
figured, offensive  leper !  Undoubtedly  this  is  the 
teaching  of  the  incident.  Thank  God  that  you  are 
not  suffering  from  evils  that  you  could  readily 
imagine,  and  concerning  which  you  can  show  no 
sound  reason  why  they  have  not  overtaken  you. 
Take  nothing  for  granted :  this  is  the  doctrine 
inculcated  by  Christ's  interview  with  the  lepers. 
Do  not  count  confidently  upon  any  creature  good. 
Do  not  conclude  that  if  quails  fall  in  the  desert — 
once  in  a  while — they  are  intended  as  a  permanent 
substitute  for  manna.  Do  not  fail  to  recognize 
that  men  have  no  absolute  claim  upon  any  com- 
modity or  comfort,  under  present  arrangements, 
in  such  a  sense  that  they  can  justly  impeach  the 
divine  administration  should  it  be  withdrawn. 
Remember  that  God  calls  upon  us  to  be  thankful 
that  we  are  not  lepers  ! — thankful  for  negative  im- 


154  SEEING  DARKLY 

munities  as  well  as  for  positive  blessings ;  thankful 
for  what  we  have  escaped  as  well  as  for  what  we  en- 
joy. Probably  this  is  not  popular  doctrine ;  and 
yet  it  is  a  direct  inference  from  the  surprise  of  Jesus 
upon  the  return  of  the  Samaritan — **  Where  are  the 
nine  ?"  As  if  He  had  said :  "  Do  they  think  that 
the  goodness  of  God  is  under  obligation  to  cure 
them  ?  Do  they  imagine  that  the  universe  is  trib- 
utary to  their  well-being  ?  Is  there  any  reason  in 
the  nature  of  things  why  they  must  get  well  ? 
Where  are  they  ?  Where  are  the  nine  ?  The 
conclusion  is  obvious.  Man  is  a  helpless,  de- 
pendent creature;  proud  as  he  is,  he  is  a  pen- 
sioner upon  divine  bounty ;  he  has  nothing  which 
he  does  not  receive ;  and  his  true  and  proper 
attitude  is  one  of  humility  and  gratitude,  not 
only  upon  high  occasions,  but  as  an  habitual 
spirit  and  permanent  state  of  mind.  Doubtless 
we  all  lose  sight  of  this  fact  and  of  the  inexorable 
conditions  of  our  case.  We  expect  too  much. 
We  demand  too  much.  So  true  is  this  that  when 
we  experience  no  signal  demonstration  of  divine 
favor,  nothing  out  of  the  common,  no  remarkable 
deliverance,  no  splendid  success,  no  cheering  tid- 
ings, no  answer  to  an  earnest  prayer,  long  and 
vainly  hoped  for,  directly  we  fall  to  moping  and 
mumbling  that  we  have  nothing  to  be   thankful 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON  155 

for.  Nevertheless,  "  Where  are  the  nine  ?"  in- 
quires Jesus.  Why  shall  we  not  thank  God  for 
common  mercies,  for  daily  supplies  from  His  store- 
house, which  because  of  their  periodical  occur- 
rence fall  round  our  feet  unheeded  and  are 
classed  as  matters  of  course, — like  the  punctual 
and  unfailing  appointments  of  nature.  "  Where 
are  the  nine?" 

Consider  further  that  if  there  be  deadlock,  dis- 
location, disaster  anywhere,  if  one's  private  affairs 
are  not  in  a  satisfactory  condition,  if  business  and 
money  are  out  of  joint,  this  is  largely  man's  fault 
rather  than  God's  ordinance.  For  the  most  part 
men  pull  down  their  troubles  upon  their  own 
heads.  They  live  unwisely,  imprudently,  reck- 
lessly. From  time  to  time  they  run  into  a  belt 
of  storms  and  a  low  barometer  ;  depressions,  fail- 
ures, bankruptcies  come ;  but  why  ?  The  land  is 
full  of  coal,  copper,  iron,  oil,  and  the  gold  and  the 
silver  sleep  beneath  the  ground  awaiting  the 
miner ;  the  cotton  grows  as  luxuriant  as  ever. 
The  corn,  the  wheat,  the  barley,  the  grass,  the 
cereals  nod  and  sway  in  the  sunshine  and  the 
breeze.  The  cattle  are  fattening  upon  the  prairies 
and  skipping  upon  the  hills.  The  sea  is  full  of 
fish  and  the  atmosphere  of  oxygen.  The  land  is 
not  poor  ;  there  is  always  plenty.     Where  then  is 


156  SEEING  DARKLY 

the  trouble  ?     The  trouble,  the  sin,  lies  with  the 
people. 

We  talk  of  hard  times,  bad  times  ;  it  is  not  the 
times  that  are  bad,  it  is  the  men.  The  times  would 
never  be  bad  if  it  were  not  for  those  who  make 
them  what  they  are.  It  is  human  nature  ;  human 
instincts,  impulses,  interests ;  it  is  human  selfish- 
ness, extravagance,  folly  and  fraud,  that  make 
most  of  the  trouble.  It  is  the  human  creature 
himself,  with  his  lusts  of  all  kinds,  who  makes  the 
times  good  or  bad,  hard  or  easy.  That  large, 
vague,  impersonal  generality  called  society  is  the 
prime  mover  in  all  mundane  changes.  He  makes 
the  mischief,  he  creates  the  panics,  he  makes  money 
tight  or  free,  he  gluts  the  market  and  anon  raises 
prices,  he  produces  more  than  the  demand  can 
consume,  and  suddenly  the  tide  turns,  the  market 
ceases,  the  bubble  bursts,  his  goods  are  on  his 
hands  and  he  is  out  of  pocket;  the  hard  times  did 
not  suspend  him, — he  suspended  himself  The 
world  is  running  at  a  high  velocity.  The  exten- 
sion of  mechanical  industries,  the  range  and  power 
and  complicacy  of  machinery,  the  discoveries  in 
chemistry,  the  utilizing  of  forces  and  agents  not 
known  fifty  years  ago,  the  wide  outlook  opened  to 
enterprise  and  adventure,  the  multiplied  inven- 
tions and  implements,  and   the  specialization   of 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON  157 

work  with  a  view  to  greater  completeness  and  per- 
fection— all  these  have  conspired  to  stimulate 
speculation,  activity,  expenditure,  so  that  many 
have  rolled  up  quick  and  colossal  fortunes,  and  the 
infection  has  spread  and  is  spreading ;  people  are 
grown  impatient  with  small  profits  and  minor 
transactions. 

So  we  see  now  and  then  glittering  and  gor- 
geous bubbles,  looking  like  pavilions  of  oriental 
wealth  and  splendor,  floated  down  the  stream, 
one  bursting  here,  another  yonder,  and  collaps- 
ing at  different  points.  Some  grand  panacea  or 
patent  world- regenerator,  or  neat  little  design 
for  making  something  out  of  nothing  that  had 
begotten  high  expectations,  suddenly  goes  to 
pieces,  because  forsooth  the  times  are  bad.  Oh, 
no  !  it  is  not  the  times ;  it  is  the  silly  people  who 
do  not  count  the  cost,  who  do  not  pause  to  con- 
sider whether  the  game  is  worth  the  chase,  who 
will  be  rich  at  all  hazards  and  costs.  If  any  profit- 
able source  of  revenue  opens  up,  or  article  of 
merchandise  becomes  suddenly  lucrative,  behold 
the  multitude  that  rushes  in,  in  numbers  large 
enough  to  swamp  it.  Whatever  the  particular 
sensation  or  rage,  be  it  the  cultivation  of  a  species 
of  rose  or  a  variety  of  peach  or  grape,  or  the 
prospectus  of  a  gold  mine  or  oil  well,  candidates 


158  SEEING  DARKLY 

eager  to  exploit  it  multiply  out  of  all  proportion 
to  their  likelihood  of  success.  In  the  last  analysis 
it  is  the  love  of  money,  the  hunger  for  gold,  the 
eager  pursuit  of  a  purely  economic  prosperity, 
that  throws  the  monetary  machinery  out  of  gear, 
and  begets  want  of  confidence,  hesitation,  timidity, 
stagnation. 

Hence,  when  you  hear  that  times  are  bad 
there  is  only  one  fit  reply,  only  one  prescrip- 
tion— make  men  better,  and  begin  with  yourself. 
You  and  I,  and  such  as  we  are,  make  up  society, 
the  world,  the  times.  They  will  not  be  per- 
manently better  until  we  improve.  The  economic 
laws  are  right.  The  mechanical  forces  are  right. 
The  chemical  changes  that  proceed  in  plant  and 
animal  are  conducted  properly.  The  sun  and 
moon  attend  punctually  to  their  business  and  rise 
and  set  on  time.  All  the  natural  uniformities  hold 
on  without  defect.  The  ox  knows  his  owner,  the 
ass  his  master's  crib.  The  inorganic  kingdom  and 
the  vegetable  and  the  animal  worlds  beneath  our 
feet  are  all  sworn  to  keep  the  peace.  We  cannot 
go  to  any  of  these  and  complain  about  the  cur- 
rency, the  tariff,  taxation,  the  shrinkage  of  values  ; 
poverty,  pauperism,  crime ;  they  have  no  responsi- 
bility in  the  premises.  We  must  knock  at  the 
gate  of  that  large,  indeterminate,  anonymous  body 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON  159 

« 

called  human  society, — mankind, — and  ask  him 
why  he  has  been  pushing  on  so  fast  as  to  trample 
on  moral  laws  ;  why  he  is  so  extravagant  and  dis- 
sipated ;  why  he  allows  organized  dishonesty  to 
pile  up  municipal  indebtedness ;  why  he  allows 
alcoholic  poison  to  circulate  and  run  down  like  a 
river ;  why  he  desecrates  the  Sabbath  and  forsakes 
the  sanctuary ;  why  he  has  not  more  virtue, 
more  moral  courage,  more  economic  prudence, 
more  morality,  more  reverence,  more  of  the  fear 
of  God. 

I  say  you  must  go  to  selfish,  covetous  men,  and 
ask  them  why  they  have  practically  abolished  God 
and  set  up  their  own  image  instead,  if  you  would 
discover  the  true  rationale  of  the  times.  We  talk 
about  them  often  as  if  they  were  an  objective 
reality,  at  war  with  our  interests  and  checkmating 
our  moves  ;  but  this  is  mere  rhetoric.  The  times 
good  or  bad,  are  ourselves.  They  are  what  human 
passions  make  them.  They  are  a  mirror  of  sheer 
human  nature ;  of  human  ambition,  greed,  sen- 
suality ;  of  the  antagonisms,  jealousies,  and 
rivalries  of  mankind.  So  that  if  any  one  be  dis- 
posed to  say  at  any  time  that  he  cannot  thank 
God  because  the  days  are  evil  and  the  times  out 
of  joint  at  bottom,  this  is  only  tantamount  to  say- 
ing that  he  is  extremely  sorry  he  and  the  rest  are 


l6o  SEEING  DARKLY 

such  a  shabby  set  of  sinners  ;  so  corrupt,  slippery, 
unreliable,  untrue. 

Alas  !  for  our  curses  and  complaints  over  the 
distributions  of  divine  Providence ;  the  sorrows 
that  afflict  us  are  mostly  the  fruit  of  our  own 
devices.  Could  we  return  to  sound  principles, 
abstinence,  moderation,  modest  ambitions,  fru- 
gality, honesty,  hard  work,  slow  and  gradual 
accumulations,  a  robust,  incorruptible  virtue,  a 
live  conscience,  moral  obedience  to  divine  laws ; 
then  methinks  every  day  would  be  a  thanks- 
giving day.  But  as  the  case  stands  men  are  bitten 
with  a  rabies  for  large  figures,  large  profits,  fabu- 
lous transactions,  ultra-enormous  incomes.  Since 
the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire  it  is  doubtful  whether 
there  has  been  such  an  age  of  frank,  unblushing 
hedonism  and  materialism  as  this  present  in  which 
we  are  living.  The  great  peril  of  our  time  is  not 
the  saloon,  nor  is  it  the  brothel ;  it  is  covetousness, 
the  lust  for  gold,  for  wealth  and  the  primacy  and 
power  wealth  gives,  and  the  luxurious  appetites 
and  insatiable  love  of  pleasure  it  gratifies.  This 
is  the  dominant  danger.  It  buys  legislatures ;  it  is 
the  father  of  corrupt  politics  and  practices  and  of 
official  jobbery ;  it  enriches  the  promoters  of  lucra- 
tive schemes  at  the  expense  of  a  confiding  and 
helpless  public;  it  is  at  the  bottom  of  pretty  much 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON  i6i 

all  the  slippery  sophistry  and  tricky  shifts,  the 
wire-pulling  and  whispering  on  the  back-stairs 
side  of  politics,  that  is  constantly  going  on,  of 
which  now  and  then  only  a  hint  and  echo  tran- 
spire above  the  decent  surface  of  things. 

Yea,  verily,  if  the  times  are  evil,  the  world  out  of 
joint,  and  the  outlook  sombre  and  gloomy,  let  us 
put  the  responsibility  where   it  belongs.     God   is 
good,  nature  is  beneficent,  food  plenty,  the  harvest 
abundant,    plethoric ;     nothing    has     gone    badly 
wrong  but   the    human    will,    the    human   heart, 
human    affections.      I^ence,    I    exhort  you,    give 
glory  to  God.     He  has  done  all  that  is  possible  to 
make  us  contented  and  happy  ;  if  we  are   not  so, 
it  is  on  account  of  oui    own  perversity  and  blind 
blundering,  or  that  of  some  one  else.     Thank  God 
for  personal  and  private  blessings  and  for  immunity 
from  troubles    that   might    easily  have    overtaken 
you  ;  for  the  nameless,  unnoticed  circumstances  of 
your  lot  not  considered  worth  mentioning.    Thank 
God  that  the  conflict  of  ages  between  good  and 
evil,  light  and  darkness,  is  ever  coming  to  a  fresh 
eruption,  and    is    still    going    on    with    favorable 
omens  that  the  good  shall  one  day  overcome  the 
evil.     Thank    God    for   the    spread    of   Christian 
truth,  and  that  you  live  in  an  age  of  tumultuous 
fermentation,   of  revolution    and   change  that   is 


i62  SEEING  DARKLY 

gradually  casting  up  a  way  for  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  of  His  Christ.  Be  thankful  that  you 
live  not  in  a  dreary  mill-horse  age,  but  in  one 
when  the  world  seems  ripening,  when  great  ideas, 
great  expectations,  great  activities  have  taken 
possession  of  men,  and  no  one  is  greatly  surprised 
at  anything  that  happens.  For  man  is  no  longer 
looking  back  to  the  old  Edens,  to  aromatic  Egypt, 
and  grim  old  Babylon  and  Persia,  with  their 
colossal  winged  bulls  and  mysterious  sphinxes 
and  flying  dragons ;  those  vanquished  kingdoms 
and  hoary  civilizations  of  the  Nile,  the  Tigris,  and 
the  Ganges  ;  or  to  the  now  silent  oracles  of  Jupiter 
Ammon  and  Apollo.  We  have  transcended  that 
point  of  view  altogether. 

The  world  is  looking  forward  to  fruitful  discov- 
eries, to  fresh  disclosures  of  truth,  to  a  land  of 
promise  and  of  peace,  of  which  the  milk  and 
honey  and  Eshcol  clusters  of  Canaan  were  typ- 
ical ;  to  the  realization  of  a  more  perfect  equilib- 
rium and  order  of  society.  True,  things  are  not 
so  far  advanced  as  the  best  would  like  them  ; 
there  is  yet  much  to  be  desired,  but  a  beginning 
has  been  made.  Truth,  right,  justice,  love,  great 
aspirations  and  ideals  have  been  planted  in  the 
world,  and  a  type  of  divine  manhood  has  appeared 
in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  that   can  never  be 


A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON  163 


obliterated  or  forgotten.  Shall  we  not  then  re- 
turn with  the  Samaritan  stranger  and  give  glory 
to  God  ?  Shall  we  not  be  profoundly  thankful  for 
the  regularity  of  the  seasons,  for  the  former  and 
latter  rain,  for  the  bounty  of  the  furrow,  for 
household  and  family  mercies,  for  personal  pres- 
ervations and  deliverances  ?  And  lifting  our 
eyes  and  looking  abroad  upon  the  harvest  field 
of  the  world  and  the  slow  and  painful  evolution 
of  man  through  the  long  travail  of  ages, — for  man 
is  the  only  growing  and  developing  creature  on 
earth, — shall  we  not  thank  God  for  the  germination 
and  gradual  growth  of  His  idea  for  our  race,  for 
His  increasing  purpose,  more  and  more  filling  out 
its  orb,  for  the  progressive  ripening  of  history,  for 
the  opening  doors  of  Christian  activity  and  use- 
fulness, for  the  spread  of  the  gospel  ?  Go  home 
then  and  be  thankful.  Think  not  upon  what  you 
have  not  got,  but  rather  remember  what  you 
have.  Face  the  future  with  trust  and  courage. 
Take  your  part  in  the  mighty  stir  of  our  time ; 
lend  a  willing  hand  to  whatever  has  a  scent  of 
good  and  a  savor  of  salvation  in  it.  Serve  your 
generation  according  to  the  will  of  God,  and  so 
make  ready  for  the  harvest  of  the  world  and  the 
endless  thanksgiving  in  heaven. 


VIII 
THE   COMING  TEMPLE 


•     VIII 

THE  COMING  TEMPLE 

"  And  I  saw  no  temple  therein :  for  the  Lord  God  Almighty 
and  the  Lamb  are  the  temple  of  it." — Revelation  xxi :  22. 

Between  the  death  of  Nero  and  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  the  Apocalypse  probably 
should  be  dated;  internal  evidence  locates  it  about 
68  or  70  of  the  Christian  era.  It  was  a  time  of 
loud  explosions  ;  on  every  breeze  were  wars  and 
rumors  of  wars  ;  the  horizon  was  black  with  storms 
and  the  ground  shook  under  the  shock  of  armies; 
the  Romans  were  closing  round  Jerusalem  besides 
being  engaged  in  conflict  with  the  Parthians  be- 
yond the  Euphrates ;  uproar  and  disorder,  loud 
crashes  and  sharp  cries  as  of  a  tottering  world  were 
heard  on  every  hand ;  and  these  phenomena  are 
reflected  on  the  pages  of  John's  Apocalypse.  Men 
were  in  a  high-strung  and  feverish  condition,  and 
especially  the  Christians  of  that  age,  for  there  can 
be  little  doubt  that  they  lived  in  daily  expectation 
of  the  second  coming  of  Christ  and  the  visible 
inauguration  of  His  kingdom,  which  would  put  a 

167 


i68  SEEING  DARKLY 

full  stop  to  all  the  wild  tumult  and  mighty  tossings 
of  the  time,  unwheel  the  chariots,  break  the  iron 
mace  of  war,  snap  the  bows  and  quiet  the  obstrep- 
erous blast  of  trumpets,  and  bring  in  Messiah's 
reign  of  righteousness  and  peace. 

It  is  clear  to  any  reader  of  the  Apocalypse  that 
the  age  in  which  it  was  written  was  a  troubled,  up- 
roarious one;  the  staggering  world  seemed  nodding 
toward  downfall ;  lurid  lights  and  awful  glooms 
chased  each  other  over  the  scene  ;  and  it  seemed 
as  if  the  barbaric  splendor  of  mighty  Rome  would 
be  quenched  in  blood  and  all  noises  soon  hushed 
by  the  Prince  of  Peace :  so,  at  least,  thought  the 
Christians.  They  themselves  had  passed  through 
the  fires  of  persecution,  for  mention  is  made  of 
those  who  had  suffered  on  account  of  their  fidelity 
to  the  gospel.  The  first  five  Roman  Emperors 
were  Augustus,  Tiberius,  Caligula,  Claudius,  and 
Nero  :  these,  the  seer  says,  had  gone  ;  and  as  matter 
of  fact  the  young  church  had  seen  a  martyr  age 
under  two  or  three  of  them.  Nero  committed 
suicide  in  A.  d.  68.  Vespasian  took  the  purple  in 
69,  and  Jerusalem  fell  in  70.  Evidently  to  the 
Christian  soul  it  was  a  horrible  time.  The  idol- 
atrous homage  to  the  emperors  is  broadly  hinted 
in  the  phrase,  "  the  worship  of  the  beast  and  his 
image,"  and  perhaps  Nero  is  meant.    John  borrows 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  169 

largely,  to  all  appearance,  from  the  colossal,  cloudy 
imagery  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  in  order  to  set 
forth  the  symptoms  and  movements  of  that  stormy 
age.  Yet  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  the 
Apocalypse  was  exhausted  by  the  events  and 
revolutions  of  that  period,  and  that  tracts  of  it  may 
not  yet  await  fulfillment  in  the  evening  time  of  the 
present  world  and  in  connection  with  the  setting 
up  of  Christ's  kingdom  on  earth.  Prophecy  is 
large  and  elastic,  and  susceptible  of  more  than  one 
application.  We  do  not  know  how  much  of  John's 
revelation  is  still  unfulfilled.  Time  alone  can  de- 
clare that. 

One  feature  of  the  composition,  however,  is 
plainly  observable  :  that  like  all  the  Hebrew  pro- 
phets, this  one  too  is  radiant  with  hope  ;  across  the 
stormy  sea  of  his  century  John  sees  light,  an  illim- 
itable expanse  of  blue,  the  red  hues  of  a  glorious  day 
that  should  ride  the  heavens  for  a  thousand  years. 
Judaism  was  a  religion  of  hope ;  all  the  prophets 
were  hopeful,  nay,  confident;  they  were  sanguine 
optimists,  sure  that  God  would  finish  what  He 
had  begun,  and  would  never  leave  the  world  like 
a  cake  not  turned.  John  is  of  the  same  mind  ;  in 
this  respect  he  is  a  thorough-bred  Jew,  and  agrees 
heartily  with  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  Daniel,  and 
all  the  rest.     And  in  this  connection,  speaking  of 


I70  SEEINO  DARKLY 

the  future  and  of  a  more  perfect  humanity,  he 
mentions  the  absence  of  the  Jerusalem  temple,  as 
if  to  point  out  a  contrast  between  the  apparatus  of 
religious  worship  then  in  operation  and  a  nobler 
worship,  a  higher,  more  stable  order  of  things, 
which  he  clearly  foresaw,  in  which  there  should 
be  no  slain  beasts,  no  altar,  no  officiating  priest, 
no  ceremonial  days,  no  temple  with  its  portico 
and  Gentile  court  and  gate  for  proselytes.  None 
of  that  externalism  familiar  to  the  Jewish  mind 
would  then  be  needed,  for  "  the  Lord  God  and  the 
Lamb  are  the  temple  of  it" 

Clearly  the  language  is  prophecy.  But  whether 
the  seer  alludes  to  the  heavenly  world  and  sphere 
of  angel  and  deity — that  estate  of  spiritual  per- 
fection which  we  conceive  as  lying  beyond  time — 
or  to  a  civilization  one  day  to  be  set  up  on  this 
planet  during  the  predicted  reign  of  universal 
righteousness,  commonly  called  the  millenium, 
is  not  clear.  Both  views  have  their  advocates, 
and  the  only  arbiter  will  be  the  fact  when 
it  arrives.  Men  cannot  agree  touching  the 
obvious  dogmatic  teachings  of  the  Bible;  how 
much  less  concerning  prophecy,  which  is  by  its 
nature  vast  and  vaporous.  The  Hebrew  prophets 
probably  saw  the  developments  of  the  future  as 
one  sees  objects  in  a  dream.     They  took  no  note 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  171 

of  time  or  order  or  exact  sequence ;  details  were 
not  marshaled  with  scrupulous  care ;  the  ground 
was  not  staked  off  like  a  meadow  or  lot  by  stiff 
lines  of  demarcation ;  the  great  features  stood  out 
in  bold  relief  and  clear  as  sunlight,  but  the  rest  lay 
in  shadow,  and  the  prophet  did  not  see  distinctly 
beyond  the  main  interest  and  the  cardinal  facts. 
Hence  the  ambiguous,  misty  character  of  the  pro- 
phetic Scriptures.  Facts  are  set  side  by  side  and 
seen  in  immediate  juxtaposition,  which  in  point  of 
time  are  separated  by  long  intervals.  Christ 
describes  the  siege  and  sack  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
end  of  the  gospel  dispensation  among  the  Gen- 
tiles in  the  same  breath,  sliding  out  of  the  one 
into  the  other  without  premising  that  they  were 
two  totally  distinct  histories,  divided  by  centuries, 
so  that  it  has  puzzled  commentators  to  interpret 
him.  This  is  a  characteristic  of  prophecy.  It  is 
not  a  sun-picture  or  photograph,  hitting  off  the 
exact  expression,  the  brow,  the  lip,  the  nostril,  the 
dimple  on  the  cheek ;  it  is  rather  a  sketch  in 
crayon,  a  rough  draft,  in  which  things  are  indi- 
cated by  a  daub  here  and  a  dash  there  ;  by  heavy 
or  light  shading  as  the  case  may  be. 

Such  being  the  genius  of  prophecy,  it  is  not  easy 
to  exhaust  it  or  tie  it  down  to  any  one  intention. 
For  the  idea  of  it  is  not  to  write  history  before- 


172  SEEING  DARKLY 

hand,  but  rather  to  show  the  broad  drift  and 
trend  of  the  world,  the  trunk-Hnes  along  which 
it  moves  and  the  chief  terminals  and  landings  to 
which  mankind  in  their  journeyings  shall  come. 
This  end  has  been  sufficiently  answered.  The  old 
barbaric  kingdoms,  with  their  Tyrian  purple,  their 
colossal  bulls  done  in  brass,  their  pyramids,  their 
ivory  palaces,  their  silken  pavilions  and  scepters 
of  gold,  have  sunk  below  the  horizon,  as  it  was 
foreseen  they  would.  Jacob,  Balaam,  Moses, 
Isaiah,  Amos,  and  other  divinely  sagacious  men 
perceived  dimly  that  more  was  to  break  forth 
out  of  God's  providence  than  their  eyes  had 
seen.  They  beheld  new  stars  climbing  the  sky; 
they  saw  stones  starting  from  the  mountain  side 
and  rolling  through  the  earth,  accumulating  vol- 
ume and  momentum  and  crushing  the  effete  things 
which  they  struck ;  they  saw  gleaming  scepters 
arising  out  of  obscure  tribes,  and  universal  do- 
minion passing  from  the  Tigris  and  the  Nile  to 
unborn  nations  ;  they  saw  barbarous  peoples  hold- 
ing forth  imploring  hands  for  a  teaching  Levite 
and  for  a  new  law ;  beyond  the  bow  and  spear  and 
battle  they  saw  that  in  the  evening  time  of  the 
world  there  would  be  light  and  peace.  They 
beheld  a  greater  prophet  than  any  who  had 
visited  them,    an    invincible  captain,   a  universal 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  173 

king,  a  finer  race,  and  a  better  society  settled  on 
more  stable  foundations.  Those  old  Hebrew 
seers  threw  out  their  jagged,  disjointed  sentences 
and  strong,  impassioned  words  at  the  finalities  of 
human  history.  They  probably  did  not  see  all 
the  niceties  and  nuances  of  the  situation,  but 
seized  with  sure  forecast  the  essential  items  and 
practical  ultimates.  They  give  the  net  result. 
They  say  that  the  sun  will  set  clear,  stormy  as  the 
long  day  may  have  been.  They  deal  in  final 
destinies  and  eventual  settlements.  The  Bible  is 
full  of  this  prophetic  element.  It  abounds  in  the 
Old  Testament.  It  carried  the  ethical  element  in 
Judaism,  insisting  upon  the  spirituality  of  religion 
as  distinguished  from  ceremonialism.  It  was  thus 
a  bright  candle  in  a  dark,  weltering  world,  raying 
forth  comfort  and  hope.  Moreover,  the  New 
Testament  is  full  of  prophecy.  The  miracles  of 
Jesus  are  prophecies.  His  words  are  largely  pro- 
phetic, even  when  primarily  intended  for  the  pur- 
pose of  instruction ;  His  resurrection  from  among 
the  dead  is  the  most  significant,  stupendous  proph- 
ecy of  all  time. 

The  apostles  also  take  up  the  same  strain 
and  flash  light  upon  the  undiscovered  future. 
Listen  to  John,  how  his  imagination  wings 
away  into  a  coming  future.      He  beholds  splen- 


174  SEEING  DARKLY 

did  cities,  he  hears  the  thunder  of  mighty  or- 
chestras, he  sees  streets  paved  with  gold,  a  new 
social  order,  a  new  civic  life,  a  new  worship,  a  new 
civilization  rising  out  of  the  decay  of  old  fixtures. 
When,  where,  how,  is  not  distinctly  stated; 
only  this  much, — he  sees  that  the  radical,  uni- 
versal change  is  to  have  human  nature  as  its 
material  and  basis ;  living  either  here  on  a  ren- 
ovated earth,  or  in  another  sphere,  or  perhaps 
in  both. 

Among  other  characteristics  of  the  new  order 
he  declares  there  shall  be  no  temple  there.  Let 
down  in  vision  amid  that  strange  scenery  and 
all  its  furniture  and  appliances,  he  looked  round 
to  ascertain  through  what  methods  and  insti- 
tutions the  new  life  of  man  would  express  itself. 
Was  it  to  be  like  the  old  Jerusalem,  Rome,  or 
Babylon,  or  any  of  the  old-world  capitals, — of 
solid  masonry  and  a  maze  of  buildings?  And 
the  one  thing  that  struck  him  most  forcibly  was 
this,  that  he  found  no  Solomon's  or  Herod's 
temple,  no  Aaronite  priest,  no  ephod,  no  miter, 
no  processionals,  no  curling  incense  there.  What 
does  this  signify  ?  What  but  this,  that  the  era  is 
coming  in  the  education  of  man  when  the  soul 
will  be  ripe  for  a  fuller,  more  voluminous  revela- 
tion of  God,  and  of  the  truths  which  concern  Him  ; 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  175 

and  when,  by  consequence,  the  current  modes  of 
conception,  of  statement,  of  formal  expression 
and  of  consecrated  usage  will  fall  away  as  inade- 
quate or  superfluous,  because  the  moral  reason 
of  man  shall  have  come  closer  to  reality  and  be 
readier  to  apprehend  it. 

I  remark  in  view  of  this  prophecy  that  the 
arrangements  of  this  present  world  are  only  rela- 
tively good  and  are  not  designed  to  be  per- 
manent. Whatever  they  be, — either  secular  or 
sacred, — they  stand  related  to  man's  present 
faculties  and  needs  as  these  now  exist,  not  as 
they  may  be  modified  hereafter.  Human  life 
on  this  planet  is  not  a  stable  fixture,  an  abso- 
lute, abiding  thing.  It  is  a  running  stream  wind- 
ing through  successive  landscapes  and  latitudes 
of  opinion  and  custom.  Incessant  and  insensible 
changes  are  evermore  set  up.  The  instrument, 
method,  statement  which  suits  one  period  will 
undergo  alteration  later,  and  possibly  be  replaced 
later  still  by  something  that  better  satisfies  the 
hunger  that  is  in  the  air  and  the  evils  that  cry  for 
a  remedy. 

Hence  come  all  the  experiments  of  history, — 
its  revolutions,  colonizations,  battles,  literatures, 
inventions.  They  testify  to  the  restlessness  of 
the  human   spirit  and  to  the  growing  mind   of 


176  SEEING  DARKLY 

man,  that  the  human  mind  is  not  a  sponge, 
a  clam,  a  moss  on  the  rock,  a  sluggish  thing 
of  low  organization  and  vitality,  but  active,  dy- 
namic, progressive.  All  the  changes  that  take 
place  in  human  society  are  a  reflex  of  changes  in 
the  sphere  of  mind  and  of  the  steady  flux  of  hu- 
man thought.  So  true  is  this  that  the  men  and 
achievements  of  other  times  which  we  pronounce 
memorable  and  heroic  would  probably  have  been 
impracticable  and  abortive  had  they  been  at- 
tempted earlier,  and  would  be  impossible  in  our 
own  contemporary  age.  Luther,  Calvin,  Hilde- 
brand,  Thomas  of  Aquina,  Loyola,  Peter  the  her- 
mit, were  fortunate  in  the  time  of  day  at  which 
they  lived,  and  probably  could  not  make  so  deep 
a  mark  upon  the  popular  imagination  now;  the 
impulse  they  gave  to  the  world  has  carried  it  far 
beyond  their  reach.  They  are  great  and  potent 
where  they  stand  and  in  relation  to  the  issues  of 
their  times.  But  set  them  down  in  the  Broadways 
and  crowded  marts  of  the  world  as  it  now  is,  and 
it  would  directly  appear  that  there  has  been  a  silent 
drift  since  their  date ;  the  temper  of  civilized  man 
has  changed ;  the  conditions  of  society  are  differ- 
ent; standards  of  judgment,  canons  of  taste,  and 
topics  of  human  thought  have  all  shifted.  Men 
arc  now  asking  other    questions   and  seeking  a 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  177 

solution  for  other  problems  than  such  as  agitated 
earlier  ages.  This  cannot  be  helped, — it  is  the 
nature  of  mind  ;  there  is  nothing  absolutely  fixed. 
If  the  idea  or  truth  remain  essentially  intact,  the 
mold  is  shattered ;  it  is  put  into  other  words, 
illustrated  by  new  information,  argued  upon  dif- 
ferent grounds. 

Thus,  if  the  name  of  monarchy  is  preserved, 
it  becomes  constitutional  monarchy — that  is, 
parliamentary  government — government  by  dis- 
cussion. If  the  ideas  of  God,  eternity,  retribution, 
heaven  and  hell  abide,  they  pass,  perhaps,  out  of 
gross,  material  imagery  into  more  refined,  ideal- 
ized modes  of  representation.  If  the  idea  of  hu- 
man fellowship  springs  up,  it  transcends  after 
a  while  the  boundaries  of  the  tribe  or  clan,  and 
embraces  a  nation,  later  the  earth  ;  becomes  more 
and  more  altruistic,  setting  up  commerce  and 
growing  catholic  and  humanitarian.  These  ex- 
pansions and  contractions  are  constantly  going 
forward.  An  age  of  metaphysics  and  scholastic 
theology  makes  way  for  one  of  maritime  discov- 
ery. A  century  of  moral  ideas  and  of  religious 
wars  and  social  reforms  is  followed  by  a  dreary, 
mill-horse  age  of  dull  work,  of  money-getting 
and  physical  comfort.  The  ultimate  secret, — why 
history  unfolds  in  its  observed  order, — is  beyond 
12 


178  SEEING  DARKLY 

our  analysis.  Only  this  seems  clear,  that  nothing 
is  fixed  save  the  mind  and  its  capacities  and  crav- 
ings. 

John  gives  voice  to  this  great  fact  of  the  ad- 
vance of  man  from  stage  to  stage,  when,  speak- 
ing of  some  future  era,  he  says  that  there  was  no 
temple  there.  And  if  one  could  imagine  him- 
self a  literal  Methuselah,  living  a  thousand  years, 
a  contemporary  of  ages,  he  would  have  occasion 
to  observe  how  true  that  is,  and  by  what  insen- 
sible steps  the  race  of  man  has  passed  through 
successive  phases  of  organization  and  experience. 
As  he  walked  down  past  the  world  with  its 
crowded  centuries  and  histories,  an  exclamation 
of  surprise  would  escape  him  now  and  then 
upon  failing  to  find  what  he  conceived  to  be 
deeply  radicated  and  permanent.  He  would  see 
venerable  institutions  passing  under  the  hammer ; 
doctrines,  usages,  laws,  industrial  systems,  phi- 
losophies of  life  and  of  the  universe  all  showing 
signs  of  decrepitude,  things  apparently  made  of 
rock,  iron  and  adamant,  and  rooted  as  the  ever- 
lasting hills,  dissolving  in  a  thaw  and  passing 
away  in  vapor.  Standing  in  the  midst  of  one  cen- 
tury he  would  say,  "  I  saw  a  universal  empire  bid- 
ding fair  to  flourish  down  to  the  last  syllable  of 
time;  but  a  little  later  I  looked,  and  lo  !  the  nations 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE 


179 


were  casting  lots  for  its  vesture  and  dividing  the 
spoils."  Standing  amid  another  century,  he 
would  say,  "  I  saw  a  universal  church,  a  supreme 
pontiff,  one  Christian  commonwealth,  and  I 
thought  that  Hildebrand  and  Innocent  would 
hold  undisputed  power  till  the  end  of  time ;  but 
I  looked  again,  and  the  tiara  was  tarnished,  the 
peoples  had  revolted,  the  Reformation  had 
come."  Standing  amid  another  century,  his  word 
would  be,  "  I  saw  absolutism,  irresponsible  per- 
sonal government  in  full  flower,  in  the  person 
of  a  Charles  or  a  Louis  ;  but  I  looked  again,  and 
what  a  ferment;  the  air  was  electric,  the  earth 
shook,  the  rain  descended  and  the  floods  came 
and  beat  upon  the  lofty  towers  of  pride,  and  a 
cry  went  up,  Babylon  the  great  is  fallen ! "  The 
Democracy  had  come. 

Let  some  Methuselah  travel  down  the  centuries 
and  watch  their  changes,  the  exits  and  the  en- 
trances, and  surely  every  little  while  he  would 
exclaim,  "  I  saw  no  temple  "  ;  "  I  saw  the  new  con- 
stantly transcending  the  old  "  ;  "  I  saw  that  all 
things  were  in  motion  and  that  passing  away  was 
written  upon  the  world  and  its  contents  " ;  "I  saw 
human  thought  poured  from  vessel  to  vessel  and 
human  nature  taking  on  different  vestures."  It 
seems  to  be  the  fact  that  thus  far  man  has  attained 


i8o  SEEING  DARKLY 

unto  nothing  which  is  more  than  relatively  good 
and  serviceable.  The  world  is  like  an  old  garret, 
filled  with  belated  furniture,  hair  trunks,  ancient 
andirons,  grotesque  bonnets  and  fans,  wheezy 
clocks,  faded  pictures  and  screens,  chordless 
harps,  outlandish  apparel,  forgotten  literatures, 
dusty  antiquities,  and  discarded  rubbish.  How 
much  has  been  left  behind !  how  much  spoiled 
wheat  and  cumbrous  baggage  has  been  thrown 
overboard  on  the  long  voyage !  how  much  has 
served  its  day  and  fallen  asleep !  how  much 
once  indispensable  has  been  shelved  and  is 
gathering  green-mold !  "  I  saw  no  temple  therein." 
What  a  tremendous  truth  it  is  !  The  things 
that  are  seen  are  temporal.  The  great  world  has 
its  sunsets  as  well  as  the  solar  day,  and  there  have 
already  been  many  of  them.  It  has  its  seasons 
like  the  year,  its  budding  spring  times  and  its  gor- 
geous autumns.  It  has  its  tides  like  the  sea,  high- 
water  mark  and  low-water  mark.  It  has  its  phases 
like  the  moon,  now  full,  now  sickle-shaped,  now 
gibbous.  It  changes  with  man.  It  bespeaks  his 
character.  It  betrays  his  bias.  All  its  processes 
reflect  his  preference.  Whatever  disappears  does 
so  because,  on  the  whole,  man  does  not  like  it. 
Whatever  arrives  comes  to  answer  some  human 
call.     If  anything    drops  out,    it    is    not    sorely 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  i8i 

needed ;  its  power  has  waned,  its  necessity  is  no 
longer  apparent,  or  it  can  be  re-fashioned  to 
suit  the  new  exigency ;  the  wine  can  be  poured 
into  new  and  stouter  skins  that  can  bear  the  fer- 
ment and  tension  better. 

But  John's  vision  has  another  aspect  and  ap- 
pHcation.  As  already  stated,  it  aptly  describes 
the  collective  experience  of  the  race  thus  far 
migrating  perpetually  out  of  one  civilization  and 
social  order  into  a  succeeding ;  but  there  is  more 
in  it  than  that,  for  it  seems  to  teach  that  the  soul 
of  man  is  destined  to  come  into  nearer  relation  to 
the  living  God,  the  Supreme  Reality.  This  ex- 
pectation and  high  destiny  are  expressed  under  a 
figure,  "  no  temple," — that  is  to  say,  that  man's 
knowledge  of  God  and  of  the  universe  is  on  the 
way  to  more  subtle  refinements  and  a  clearer  defi- 
nition. It  is  practically  the  same  idea  that  burst 
upon  Paul.  "  Now  we  see  in  a  mirror,  darkly ; 
then  face  to  face.  Now  I  know  in  part."  A  mag- 
nificent prospect  it  is,  that  the  infinite  God  and  the 
moral  problems  of  this  unintelligible  world  and 
of  existence  as  a  whole,  shall  take  on  new  shapes, 
divulge  new  meanings.  Man  at  present  is  densely 
ignorant  touching  the  highest  topics  of  human 
thought ,  including  his  own  possibilities.  He 
apprehends  all  religious  truth  through  the  medium 


i82  SEEING  DARKLY 

of  crude,  inadequate  definitions  and  material  sym- 
bols. The  supreme  realities  loom  upon  us  big, 
vague,  dim,  as  through  a  thick  fog ;  we  catch  a 
glimpse  of  them,  but  do  not  see  them  as  they  are. 
Relative  to  the  ideas  of  God,  of  spiritual  perfec- 
tion and  of  eternal  life,  man  is  an  Eskimo,  dwelling 
among  icebergs  and  polar  cold  and  the  twilight 
air  of  a  frozen  zone ;  but  according  to  Christian 
prophecy  he  is  yet  to  dwell  near  the  equator,  in  a 
tropical,  aromatic,  soft  summer  land  and  under 
the  vertical  splendor  of  divine  truths ;  he  is  to 
revolve  in  a  larger  orbit  and  nearer  the  throne  of 
God.  If  so,  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  while 
the  Bible,  the  church,  the  frame  and  constitution 
of  nature,  the  course  of  Providence,  all  the  ap- 
pointments of  this  present  state,  are  unquestion- 
ably commensurate  with  the  requirements  of 
man  as  he  now  stands ;  yet  a  crisis  is  coming,  an 
epoch  will  dawn,  when  this  may  not  be  quite  so 
true,  because  he  shall  be  furnished  with  a  more 
powerful  organism,  with  a  more  sensitive  nerve, 
with  finer  fiber  and  a  larger  cerebral  capacity  so 
to  speak,  and  more  rapid  and  intuitive  perceptions 
and  greater  receptivity,  and  by  reason  of  this  his 
increased  volume  of  being  shall  be  able  to  receive 
and  use  what  is  now  incomprehensible. 

"  I  saw  no  temple  therein."    Why  not  ?    Probably 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  183 

because  there  was  no  longer  need  for  one ;  I  can 
think  of  no  better  reason.  It  appears  to  be  a 
prophecy  of  the  yet  undeveloped  and  potential  life 
of  man's  soul,  under  some  future,  inconceivable 
conditions  which  await  him,  when  God  shall  make 
himself  more  audible  and  articulate  than  now,  at 
least  to  those  who  wait  for  Him.  John's  predictive 
vision,  then,  seems  to  foreshadow  a  radical  change 
in  those  forms  and  statements  in  which  religious 
ideas  are  now  couched — no  temple.  Doubtless 
many  of  the  old  battle-grimed  banners  will  be 
lowered,  many  tattered  flags  will  be  furled,  many 
old  war-drums  will  cease  to  throb,  many  watch- 
words and  shibboleths  will  fall  empty  and  mean- 
ingless, many  vestments,  rituals,  pompous  sacerdo- 
talisms, and  considerable  dogmatic  theology,  may- 
hap, will  shrivel  up  and  go  to  pieces  in  that  day 
when  the  Lord  God  Almighty  shall  become  the 
temple  of  a  redeemed  race.  Much  that  now  car- 
ries the  air  of  supreme  importance  may  then  take 
a  secondary  rank  ;  "  the  last  shall  be  first,  and  the 
first  last."  And  to  this  dogma  and  to  that  form 
or  ceremony  it  may  be  said,  **  Friend,  go  up  higher," 
or  "  Friend,  give  this  man  place." 

Indeed,  it  is  impossible  to  gauge  the  dimensions 
and  range  of  this  enigmatic  sentence,  "  I  saw  no 
temple  therein."    If  Columbus'  discovery  of  Amer- 


1 84  SEEING  DARKLY 

ica  and  the  exploits  of  the  fifteenth  century  naviga- 
tors revolutionized  geography;  if  the  discovery  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  made  an  epoch  in  medi- 
cine; if  the  discovery  of  planetary  motion  altered  the 
position  of  the  earth  among  the  family  of  worlds ; 
if  steam  and  the  electric  wire  annihilate  space  and 
time;  if  these  minor  revelations,  like  a  sunrise, 
have  wakened  mankind  to  new  views  and  inter- 
pretations, how  much  more  that  high  day  when 
God  shall  manifest  Himself  and  open  His  universe 
more  freely  to  man ;  when  there  shall  be  no  need 
of  a  temple  or  of  the  symbolism,  metaphor,  and 
apparatus  by  means  of  which  eternal  things  are 
now  mediated.  And  if  any  one  ask,  "  Shall  not 
jny  favorite  theology  hold  good?  Will  there  be 
no  Bible,  no  church,  no  altar,  no  song,  no  sacra- 
ment in  that  holy  empire  of  restored  humanity, 
whenever  and  wherever  it  may  arise  ?"  Possibly ; 
but  if  so,  not  what  befits  this  present  scene,  and 
man  at  his  present  stage  of  knowledge  and 
hampered  by  his  stringent  limitations.  "  I  saw  no 
temple  therein,"  says  the  rapt  seer  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse. It  must  mean  something,  and  what  else 
can  it  mean  than  this,  that  a  vast  organic  change 
is  yet  to  pass  upon  human  nature,  rendering  obso- 
lete and  antiquated  much  that  is  now  indispens- 
able and  useful. 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  185 

Verily  this  is  one  of  the  spacious  and  splendid 
prophecies  of  the  gospel  that  man  is  destined  to 
know  more  about  God,  about  the  true,  the  beauti- 
ful, and  the  good,  about  the  mysterious  universe, 
that  he  is  marching  toward, — a  larger  and  finer 
brain,  a  more  cunning  hand,  a  purer  heart,  and 
a  concord  of  more  harmonious  faculties.  He 
is  like  a  mariner  on  a  tedious  voyage ;  the  stale 
biscuits  will  answer  until  he  has  cast  anchor  and 
gone  ashore  to  eat  the  mellow  fruits  of  the  land. 

Something  like  this  seems  to  be  the  teaching 
of  John's  vision, — that,  as  the  final  outcome  of 
present  arrangements  and  after  they  have  done 
their  work,  there  will  be  a  revelation  of  God  to 
man,  compared  to  which  this  earthly  life  is  a 
dream,  a  twilight,  A  personal  and  living  Provi- 
dence will  then  no  longer  be  called  a  great  Per- 
haps, and  the  immortality  of  the  soul  will  have  be- 
come an  axiom,  the  power  and  essential  superiority 
of  spirit  will  become  manifest,  rapid  intuitions  will 
take  the  place  of  tardy  logic,  probability  will 
ripen  into  proof,  and  great  truths,  now  disputed 
and  doubtful,  will  have  become  as  sure  as  sensa- 
tion. Prayer,  it  may  be,  will  take  different  expres- 
sion, praise  will  be  different,  worship,  adoration, 
will  migrate  into  other  forms,  all  religious  exercises 
may  pass  into  another  phase  and  take  on  another 


l86  SEEING  DARKLY 

tone  and  complexion  when  God  and  the  Lamb 
are  become  the  temple  of  the  ransomed  race. 
When,  where,  how,  on  this  material  globe,  or  in 
some  other  firmament  of  immensity, — these  par- 
ticulars are  not  given.  It  is  prophecy — dim, 
glimmering,  inorganic,  shapeless,  afloat  in  vacancy, 
steeped  in  silence,  fringed  with  splendor. 

The  Bible  from  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse  rum- 
bles all  through  with  some  unspeakable,  tremen- 
dous, far-off  event ;  it  is  hke  a  promissory  note 
that  has  not  yet  matured ;  it  is  like  a  fruit  tree  in 
springtime,  full  of  eyes,  swelling  buds  and  opening 
blossoms,  all  ripening  toward  autumn.  Here 
and  yonder  it  flings  up  a  Nebo,  a  Hermon — a 
beetling  crag  or  high  headland,  from  which  one 
may  look  out  and  away  toward  the  sunset  of 
time  as  we  know  it ;  when  man  will  be  ripe  and 
ready  for  an  unveiling  of  the  Godhead  and  for  a 
breaking  of  secrets  that  had  not  previously  been 
possible,  and  the  symbol  will  give  place  to  reality. 

If  this  be  at  all  a  correct  rendering,  what  a  mere 
nursery  filled  with  the  clack  and  cries  of  nurses 
and  children  is  the  Christian  church,  compared  to 
the  adult,  spiritual  and  future  state  of  redeemed 
men !  Christian  doctrine,  too,  say  the  best  of  it, 
how  inadequate  and  unsatisfactory,  how  many 
ravelled  edges  !      Surely  our  creeds  must  be  but 


THE  COMING  TEMPLE  187 

angles  of  the  truth,  fractional  parts,  bearing  the 
same  relation  to  unseen  reals  that  the  debtor's 
fifty  or  sixty  cents  on  the  dollar  bears  to  what  he 
actually  owes.  All  we  can  do  yet  a  while  is  to 
take  the  likeliest  materials  at  hand,  and  frame  the 
most  logical,  coherent,  moral,  and  satisfying  con- 
ception of  God  and  His  requirements  of  which 
we  are  capable.  Use  what  you  have ;  believe  the 
gospel  delivered  to  you ;  take  to  heart  its  great 
promise  and  prophecy  and  live  by  it;  this  is  the 
time  for  faith,  for  patience,  for  watching.  We 
know  enough  to  answer  the  present  distress.  God 
may  not  utter  any  more  truth  concerning  Himself 
yet  a  while.  Go  live  by  what  is  revealed  in  Jesus 
Christ;  it  is  more  than  enough.  He  has  power 
to  forgive  and  to  sanctify  souls  ;  He  is  the  way 
of  life ;  do  His  commandments,  live  in  His  spirit, 
trust  in  His  powerful  blood.  Forms,  creeds, 
rituals  come  and  go ;  no  human  theology  can  ad- 
equately translate  eternal  things ;  no  form  of  wor- 
ship, whether  highly  ornate  and  ceremonial  or  of 
the  simple,  silent  sort,  can  lead  one  into  the  Holy 
of  holies ;  but  we  can  do  the  will  of  God,  we  can 
hope  in  His  mercy,  we  can  work  righteousness,  we 
can  act  upon  our  best  impulses,  we  can  make  arti- 
cles of  faith  and  forms  of  worship  crutches  to  lead 
to  a  higher  landing  and  to  immense  horizons ;  we 


1 88  SEEING  DARKLY 

can  believe,  obey,  and  glorify  God.  We  can  name 
the  name  of  Christ  and  become  His  disciples. 
This  is  enough  now;  this  is  all  that  is  possible 
now. 

All  life  is  progress  from  lower  to  higher, 
from  accident  to  essence,  from  symbol  to  reality. 
As  man  moves  forward,  this  and  that  drops  away, 
superfluities  are  discarded,  and  substantial  values 
are  kept.  "  I  saw  no  temple  therein  "  ;  "  They 
need  no  candle,  neither  light  of  the  sun,  for  the 
Lord  God  giveth  them  light."  It  is  the  same  truth 
in  a  different  phrase.  Life  is  in  its  best  sense  an 
everlasting  progress  and  ascension,  along  the 
course  of  which  this  and  that  falls  aside  outworn, 
preposterous,  puerile,  as  the  soul  waxes  in  power 
and  reaches  a  higher  altitude  and  draws  nigh 
unto  God.  Meantime  we  need  the  sun  and  the 
moon  and  the  temple.  Systems  and  creeds,  forms 
and  ceremonies, — these  are  fixtures  of  the  present 
time  ;  use  them  for  what  they  are  worth,  get  all 
the  good  out  of  them  they  contain,  and  grow  in 
grace. 


\ 


Date  Due 

1 

My  5     '38 

<|) 

